Interprocess Communication Bridge for Secure Secret Injection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies fail to securely protect secrets when used in command line events, as these secrets can be exposed to unauthorized users or malicious actors through event logs or other systems.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves invoking a secondary process in a suspended mode and providing placeholder command line entries, while retrieving secrets and storing operable command line entries in a memory location associated with the secondary process, thereby nullifying the placeholders and enabling the use of secrets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If secrets are included in command line arguments when launching a process, then the process can access the secrets, but the secrets are exposed to unauthorized users or malicious actors through event logs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the main process acting as a mediator) that retrieves secrets from a secure location and injects them into the secondary process's memory space, rather than passing secrets through command line arguments. This intermediary approach allows the secondary process to access secrets without exposing them in event logs or command line history.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts secrets from the command line argument context and relocates them to the process memory space. By taking out secrets from the visible command line interface and storing them in the secondary process's memory, the solution eliminates the exposure pathway while maintaining secret accessibility for the process.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If command line arguments are written to event logs for tracking, then process execution can be monitored, but sensitive information such as secrets are exposed to unauthorized users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts sensitive information (secrets) from the command line argument context and relocates it to the process memory space. This extraction eliminates the presence of secrets in event logs while preserving the ability to monitor process execution through other means.
Solution Approach 2:
The main process serves as an intermediary that handles secret retrieval and injection, separating the monitoring function from the secret transmission function. This allows event logs to record process execution details without capturing sensitive secret information.
3Reliability
If placeholder command line entries are provided to secondary process, then command line security is maintained, but the secondary process cannot access actual secrets
Solution Approach 1:
The main process acts as an intermediary that bridges the placeholder command line entries and the actual secrets. It retrieves secrets from secure storage and injects them into the secondary process's memory space, allowing the secondary process to access real secrets while maintaining the appearance of using placeholder entries in command line arguments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the secret access mechanism into two parts: placeholder entries visible in command line arguments (for security appearance) and actual secrets stored in process memory (for functional access). This segmentation allows both security maintenance and secret accessibility to coexist.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and apparatuses are disclosed for securing the use of secondary processes using an interprocess communication bridge. Techniques may include identifying a sensitive data including at least one secret and invoking a secondary process in a computing environment in a suspended mode, wherein the secondary process is configured to perform at least one operation on a file associated with the sensitive data. Techniques may further include injecting at least one code element into the secondary process, the code element being configured to redirect the secondary process to the sensitive data and resuming the secondary process wherein the at least one operation is performed using the sensitive data.