Tunneling Driver for Transparent Database Access Through Security Gateways
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Solution Overview
Problem
Standardized database drivers often fail to navigate security mechanisms, leading to blocked database access and requiring cumbersome customization, which complicates maintenance and upgrades, and there is no prior solution for seamless and transparent access through security barriers.
Innovation Solution
A pair of tunneling drivers translates database-access requests into Web services authorized by the security gateway, allowing communication to bypass the gateway and maintain original instruction integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If standardized database drivers are used, then driver standardization benefits are maintained, but security mechanisms block database access requests
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a tunneling driver as an intermediary component between the standardized database driver and the secured database. The tunneling driver intercepts blocked database access requests, translates them into authorized communication protocols, and forwards them through the security mechanism. This allows standardized drivers to maintain their benefits while the tunneling driver resolves the security blocking issue by acting as a mediator that understands both the driver's instructions and the security gateway's requirements.
2Reliability
If customized drivers are created to bypass security mechanisms, then database access is enabled, but driver complexity and maintenance burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the driver functionality into two distinct components: a standardized database driver that users interact with, and a tunneling driver that handles security bypass logic. This segmentation allows the complex security-handling logic to be isolated in the tunneling driver layer, while the user-facing driver remains simple and standardized. The tunneling driver can be configured once to work with multiple standardized drivers, reducing overall system complexity compared to customizing each driver individually.
3Adaptability or versatility
If customized drivers are implemented for each user, then security gateway compatibility is achieved, but support and maintenance tasks become cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The tunneling driver is designed as a universal component that can work with multiple different standardized database drivers and security gateway combinations. Instead of creating customized drivers for each user-driver-gateway combination, the tunneling driver provides multi-functional capability to handle various protocols and security mechanisms through configuration. This universality means that when security policies or gateways are upgraded, the tunneling driver can be reconfigured once to work with the new standards, rather than requiring updates to numerous customized drivers across different user systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and associated systems for a transparent tunneling architecture for a secured database. A tunneling driver captures a user's database-access request before it can be blocked by a security gateway. The driver translates the request into a Web-service request, where the requested Web service is implemented by means of classes or objects that correspond to database operations. The request is formatted into a standard database-independent form that the security gateway allows to pass to the database server intact. A Web-service runtime environment interprets the requested Web service, thereby instructing the server-side database-management application to respond to the user's access request. In a reverse procedure, the database's response is translated into a Web-service response to the requested Web service that may similarly tunnel through the security gateway, and that is then translated back into a form that may be properly interpreted by the requesting user's client application.