File Sanitation Server for Zero-Day Malicious Code Neutralization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods to protect computers from malicious scripts embedded in downloaded files, such as air gaps or sandboxes, are either restrictive to user productivity or costly and difficult to scale, and fail to address zero-day vulnerabilities effectively.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a file sanitation server that sanitizes files by breaking them down into elementary components, removing embedded codes, and reconstructing them, which can be accessed through a browser or email application, ensuring safe file handling and protection against unknown threats.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an air gap is introduced to physically separate the computer's network from the external network, then security against malicious scripts is improved, but user productivity deteriorates due to restricted file downloads
Solution Approach 1:
A file sanitation server is introduced as an intermediary between the external network and the user's computer. The server receives files from the external network, sanitizes them by removing malicious scripts, and then provides the cleaned files to users. This mediator allows file downloads to proceed while blocking harmful content, thus maintaining both security and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
File sanitization is performed in advance before files are delivered to users. The file sanitation server processes and cleans files during the download process, so that by the time users receive and open the files, all malicious content has already been removed. This preliminary action ensures security without requiring users to take additional precautions.
2Reliability
If a sandbox is introduced in each user machine to open downloaded files, then security against malicious scripts is improved, but implementation cost and scalability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of implementing sandboxes in each individual user machine, the patent merges the sanitization function into a centralized file sanitation server. This server handles file cleaning for all users, consolidating the security infrastructure and eliminating the need for complex sandbox implementations on each user's device. This approach significantly reduces implementation cost and improves scalability.
3Reliability
If traditional security methods are used to detect malicious scripts, then known threats are addressed, but zero-day vulnerabilities remain undetected
Solution Approach 1:
The file sanitation server uses content disarm and reconstruction technology that converts potentially harmful files into safe versions by removing all executable code and scripts while preserving the document content. Instead of trying to detect and identify specific malicious patterns, the system systematically strips all code from files, effectively neutralizing both known threats and zero-day vulnerabilities without requiring knowledge of specific attack patterns.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of downloading or opening a file in response to a user input made through an application running in the computer system, includes the steps of detecting by the application that the user input is to download or open a file, issuing a request by the application to a file sanitation server to sanitize the file to remove embedded codes in the file and return the sanitized file, and upon receiving the sanitized file by the application, saving the sanitized file in a folder where the sanitized file can be opened.