Reverse Proxy Error Injection for Secure Tunneling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud relay services face challenges in providing seamless and secure error handling for clients accessing on-premises resources through the cloud, as existing solutions cannot securely forward error messages due to lack of access to security certificates.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a reverse proxy that injects custom error handling information into a new application-layer request, allowing an error handling service to establish a secure communications channel with the client, and generate an encrypted response with a detailed error message.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a reverse proxy forwards client requests to on-premises resources, then secure communication is maintained, but error handling capability is lost due to lack of access to security certificates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an error handling service as an intermediary component that has access to security certificates. When the reverse proxy encounters an error, it forwards the error to this service, which then generates an encrypted error response using the certificates. This mediator approach allows error handling without requiring the reverse proxy to directly manage security certificates, thus improving reliability while avoiding increased complexity at the proxy level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the security certificate management function from the reverse proxy and places it in a separate error handling service. This extraction allows the reverse proxy to focus on its core function of forwarding requests and handling errors, while the specialized service handles the complex task of certificate management and encrypted error response generation, resolving the contradiction between error handling capability and device complexity.
2Loss of information
If generic error messages are returned to clients, then simplicity is maintained, but information completeness is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the error handling service receives error information from the reverse proxy, processes it with access to security certificates, and generates detailed encrypted error messages that are sent back to clients. This feedback loop ensures that complete and informative error messages are provided without requiring the reverse proxy itself to have complex certificate management capabilities, thus reducing information loss while managing complexity through the feedback architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The error handling service acts as an intermediary that enhances error messages with additional information. It takes basic error data from the reverse proxy, enriches it with security context and detailed error information, encrypts it properly, and returns it to the client. This intermediary approach allows detailed error information to be provided without increasing the complexity of the reverse proxy's error handling mechanism.
3Reliability
If secure error responses are implemented, then communication security is maintained, but implementation complexity increases due to certificate requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an intermediary error handling service that centralizes certificate management. This service maintains the security certificates and uses them to encrypt error responses, ensuring communication security. The reverse proxy simply forwards errors to this service and relays the encrypted responses to clients, avoiding the need for the proxy to directly manage certificates. This intermediary approach maintains security while avoiding the complexity of certificate management at the proxy level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the error handling function into separate components: the reverse proxy handles error detection and forwarding, while the dedicated error handling service handles certificate management and encrypted response generation. This segmentation allows each component to focus on its specific task, maintaining communication security through proper certificate usage while avoiding the complexity of implementing full certificate management in the reverse proxy.
Data Source
AI summary
System, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are disclosed for injecting custom information for a server while establishing end-to-end secure communications with a client via a tunneling service. A reverse proxy receives, from a client over a first transport-layer connection, a request that includes an identifier associated with an on-premises resource. The reverse proxy determines, based on the identifier, that an error prevents forwarding of the client request to the on-premises resource. In response, the reverse proxy transmits, to an error handling service (EHS) over a second transport-layer connection, a new application-layer request comprising error handling information to enable the EHS to establish, via the reverse proxy, a secure communications channel with the client using the existing first transport-layer connection and the second transport-layer connection. The reverse proxy proxies, from the EHS and to the client, an encrypted response containing an error message.