Endpoint Capability Attestation for Selective Home Gateway Scanning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Home gateway devices face computational constraints in managing network traffic for numerous devices, and existing methods to determine endpoint security status are vulnerable to spoofing, leading to inefficient resource usage and potential security breaches.
Innovation Solution
A cryptographic attestation method is employed to verify the security posture of endpoint devices, using a security posture assessment token (SPAT) signed by a trusted execution environment, allowing the home gateway to determine if the endpoint can handle security services independently, thus optimizing resource usage and enhancing security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If home gateway devices perform comprehensive security scans for all traffic, then network security is improved, but computational resources are exhausted due to limited processing capabilities
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of endpoint security posture by requesting and verifying security posture assessment tokens (SPATs) before applying security scans. This preliminary action classifies devices into trusted and untrusted categories, enabling the gateway to perform comprehensive scans only on untrusted devices while skipping scans for trusted devices, thus resolving the contradiction between security coverage and computational resource consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different security scan policies to different devices based on their assessed security posture. Trusted devices receive reduced or no scanning while untrusted devices receive comprehensive scanning. This local differentiation optimizes computational resource allocation by intensive scanning only where necessary, maintaining network security while preserving gateway processing capabilities
2Ease of operation
If home gateway devices use domain name system inferences to determine security posture, then device identification is simplified, but the system becomes vulnerable to malicious attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces security posture assessment tokens (SPATs) as an intermediary mechanism between the gateway and endpoint devices. These tokens, signed by trusted third parties or the devices themselves, provide cryptographically verifiable security posture information. This intermediary approach replaces vulnerable DNS-based inference with a more reliable token-based verification system that resists spoofing and manipulation attacks
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical/DNS-based inference method with a cryptographic verification mechanism. Instead of relying on domain name lookups and heuristics, the gateway uses cryptographic signature verification to authenticate security posture claims. This substitution provides stronger security guarantees while maintaining ease of operation through automated token verification
3Productivity
If home gateway devices skip security scans for trusted devices, then computational burden is reduced, but security coverage may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification of security posture tokens before skipping scans. By validating the cryptographic signatures and trustworthiness of SPATs in advance, the gateway ensures that skipping scans for trusted devices does not compromise security coverage. This preliminary action maintains security integrity while enabling efficient scan processing for verified trusted devices
Data Source
AI summary
There is disclosed a system and method of providing services on a home gateway, including providing a set of security scans for traffic to and from a plurality of devices on a home network; cryptographically verifying that a secured device from the plurality of devices provides for itself internal security services; and based on the cryptographic verification, skipping at least one security scan of the set of security scans for traffic of the secured device.