Federated Firewall Security Matrix Offloads Functions to End Hosts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional firewalls face challenges such as insufficient computing power, limited visibility into traffic, inability to detect internal threats, and inefficiencies due to end-to-end encryption, leading to scalability and effectiveness issues in handling sophisticated cyber-attacks.
Innovation Solution
A federated firewall security system that offloads selected firewall functions to end hosts, leveraging a centralized security matrix to distribute and coordinate firewall operations across the network, enhancing scalability and effectiveness by utilizing local security capabilities and improving threat detection and response.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) inspection and detection capabilities are enhanced, then security effectiveness against cyber-attacks is improved, but computational and memory costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the firewall system into multiple distributed firewall agents deployed across different network devices and end hosts, rather than relying on a single centralized NGFW. This segmentation distributes the computational and memory workload across multiple nodes, reducing the burden on any single device while maintaining enhanced inspection capabilities through coordinated security policies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a centralized security management server as an intermediary that coordinates security policies and manages communication between distributed firewall agents. This intermediary handles complex inspection logic centrally while allowing local agents to perform filtering operations, balancing the need for advanced detection with reduced computational overhead at network perimeter devices.
2Ease of operation
If a single firewall handles all network traffic inspection, then security policy enforcement is centralized, but scalability and performance deteriorate under high traffic loads
Solution Approach 1:
The firewall functionality is segmented into multiple distributed agents deployed across network devices, routers, and end hosts. Each agent enforces security policies locally for its assigned traffic, enabling the system to scale horizontally by adding more agents without overloading a single firewall device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-dimension centralized firewall architecture to a multi-dimensional distributed architecture where security enforcement occurs at multiple levels (network perimeter, intermediate devices, and end hosts). This dimensional expansion allows traffic to be inspected and filtered at various points in the network, improving scalability while maintaining centralized policy management.
3Use of energy by moving object
If firewall functions are distributed to end hosts, then computational burden on firewalls is reduced, but system complexity and trust verification requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where distributed firewall agents continuously report their status, capability information, and security events to the centralized security management server. The server verifies trust levels and capability information from agents, dynamically adjusting security policies and coordinating actions across the distributed system, thereby managing complexity through structured communication and verification protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
End hosts equipped with firewall agents perform self-service security functions by locally inspecting and filtering their own traffic according to distributed security policies. This self-service capability reduces the computational burden on centralized firewalls while the standardized agent architecture and centralized coordination keep system complexity manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving capability information from an end host at a centralized security matrix in communication with a firewall and a plurality of end hosts, verifying at the centralized security matrix, a trust level of the end host, assigning at the centralized security matrix, a firewall function to the end host based on the trust level and capability information, and notifying the firewall of the firewall function assigned to the end host. Firewall functions are offloaded from the firewall to the end hosts by the centralized security matrix. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.