Intermediary Security Layer for Malicious Text Message Sanitization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional security solutions often fail to protect against malicious content in text messages, as they do not scan or analyze these messages effectively, leaving users vulnerable to threats like trojan-horse files, phishing websites, and other potential dangers, especially since many messaging applications prevent third-party modifications to messages.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that intercepts potentially malicious text messages, forwards them to a security service for analysis, and replaces malicious content with a safe representation, allowing the clean message to be displayed to the user while preventing the original malicious content from being rendered by the target application.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional security solutions scan files for malicious characteristics, then known malicious software can be detected, but new or customized attack vectors remain undetected and unprotected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a security application as an intermediary layer between messaging applications and users. This intermediary intercepts messages, analyzes them for malicious content, and provides sanitized versions to users. The security application acts as a mediator that protects against both known and unknown threats without requiring modifications to the underlying messaging applications, thus resolving the contradiction between detection accuracy and protection coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The security application performs preliminary analysis of messages before they reach the user. By intercepting and scanning messages in advance, the system can identify and neutralize malicious content proactively. This preliminary action allows the system to protect against new attack vectors by analyzing message content, links, and attachments before execution, rather than relying solely on post-detection responses.
2Stability of the object's composition
If messaging applications prevent third-party modifications to messages, then message integrity is maintained, but security scanning and sanitization cannot be performed
Solution Approach 1:
The security application operates as an intermediary that receives messages from messaging applications, performs security analysis, and returns sanitized messages. This approach maintains the original message integrity within the messaging application while allowing security processing in the intermediary layer. The messaging application's prohibition on modifications is circumvented by performing sanitization in a separate security layer rather than attempting to modify messages within the restricted application.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the message processing function into two independent parts: the messaging application that handles message delivery and user interface, and the security application that handles message analysis and sanitization. This segmentation allows each component to maintain its integrity and functionality independently, with the security application providing protection without requiring modification capabilities within the messaging application itself.
3Reliability
If all messages are scanned and analyzed by security service, then comprehensive protection is achieved, but processing time and system resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The security application implements local quality control by applying different levels of analysis to different message components. High-risk elements such as suspicious links, attachments from unknown senders, and messages containing malicious patterns receive intensive scanning, while benign messages receive lighter processing. This differentiated approach maintains comprehensive security coverage while optimizing processing time by avoiding uniform heavy scanning of all messages.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the security application learns from analyzed messages and adjusts its scanning intensity based on threat patterns. When new attack vectors are identified, the system increases scrutiny for similar patterns. This adaptive feedback approach ensures comprehensive protection against emerging threats while maintaining efficient processing for benign messages, reducing overall time loss.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method for protecting against malicious content may include intercepting, by a security application installed on the computing device, an original message intended for a target application installed on the same computing device. The original message may include potentially malicious content. The security application may forward the original message to a security service. The computing device may receive a clean message from the security service, wherein the clean message includes a safe representation of the potentially malicious content. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.