Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/02—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/02—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
  • H04L63/0209—Architectural arrangements, e.g. perimeter networks or demilitarized zones
  • H04L63/0218—Distributed architectures, e.g. distributed firewalls
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
  • H04L12/02—Details
  • H04L12/16—Arrangements for providing special services to substations
  • H04L12/18—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
  • H04L12/02—Details
  • H04L12/16—Arrangements for providing special services to substations
  • H04L12/18—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast
  • H04L12/1813—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/02—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
  • H04L63/0227—Filtering policies
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
  • H04L67/1001—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/06—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
  • H04L41/0654—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications using network fault recovery
  • H04L41/0668—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications using network fault recovery by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Definitions

• the invention relates generally to firewall operation, and more specifically in one embodiment to application state sharing in a firewall cluster.
• Networks typically comprise an interconnected group of computers, linked by wire, fiber optic, radio, or other data transmission means, to provide the computers with the ability to transfer information from computer to computer.
• the Internet is perhaps the best-known computer network, and enables millions of people to access millions of other computers such as by viewing web pages, sending e-mail, or by performing other computer-to-computer communication.
• the firewall is typically a computerized network device that inspects network traffic that passes through it, permitting passage of desired network traffic based on a set of rules.
• Firewalls perform their filtering functions by observing communication packets, such as TCP/IP or other network protocol packets, and examining characteristics such as the source and destination network addresses, what ports are being used, and the state or history of the connection. Some firewalls also examine packets traveling to or from a particular application, or act as a proxy device by processing and forwarding selected network requests between a protected user and external networked computers.
• communication packets such as TCP/IP or other network protocol packets
• characteristics such as the source and destination network addresses, what ports are being used, and the state or history of the connection.
• Some firewalls also examine packets traveling to or from a particular application, or act as a proxy device by processing and forwarding selected network requests between a protected user and external networked computers.
• the firewall typically controls the flow of network information by monitoring connections between various ports, sockets, and protocols, such as by examining the network traffic in a firewall.
• Rules based on socket, port, application, and other information are used to selectively filter or pass data, and to log network activity.
• Firewall rules are typically configured to identify certain types of network traffic that are to be prohibited or that should have certain other restrictions applied, such as blocking traffic on ports known to be used for file sharing programs while virus scanning any received over a traditional FTP port, blocking certain applications or users from performing some tasks while allowing others to perform such tasks, and blocking traffic based on known attack patterns such as repeated queries to different ports from a common IP address.
• firewalls Unfortunately, the ability of a firewall to manage such connections when distributed across multiple computer systems is limited in that knowledge of a connection is typically stored only in the system handling the connection. Improved firewall distribution in a cluster is therefore desired.
• Various example embodiments of the invention comprise a firewall cluster system including a first node operable to receive a connection in a first node of a firewall cluster having three or more nodes, monitor packets of the received connection and determining application state data associated with the connection from the monitored packets in the first node, and share application state data with at least another node in the firewall cluster. Another node can use the application state data to continue processing the connection such as if the first node fails, or to provide load balancing.
• Figure 1 shows an example network including a firewall, as may be used to practice some embodiments of the invention.
• Figure 2 shows an example network including a firewall cluster comprising multiple firewall nodes, as may be used to practice some embodiments of the invention.
• Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of using shared application state data in a firewall cluster, consistent with an example embodiment of the invention.
• Figure 1 illustrates a typical computer network environment, including a public network such as the Internet at 101, a private network 102, and a computer network device operable to provide firewall and intrusion protection functions shown at 103.
• the computer network device 103 is positioned between the Internet and the private network, and regulates the flow of traffic between the private network and the public network.
• the network device 103 is in various embodiments a firewall device, and intrusion protection device, or functions as both.
• a firewall device or module within the network device provides various network flow control functions, such as inspecting network packets and dropping or rejecting network packets that meet a set of firewall filtering rules.
• firewalls typically perform their filtering functions by observing communication packets, such as TCP/IP or other network protocol packets, and examining characteristics such as the source and destination network addresses, what ports are being used, and the state or history of the connection. Some firewalls also examine packets to determine what application has established the connection, or act as a proxy device by processing and forwarding selected network requests between a protected user and external networked computers.
• Firewalls often use "signatures" or other characteristics of undesired traffic to detect and block traffic that is deemed harmful or that is otherwise undesired.
• Firewalls typically use sets of rules to filter traffic, such that what happens with any particular element of network data is dependent on how the rule set applies to that particular data. For example a rule blocking all traffic to port 6346 will block incoming traffic bound for that port on a server within the protected network, but will not block other data going to the same server on a different port number. Similarly, a rule blocking traffic originating from a file sharing program such as Shareaza will use patterns in the traffic to block Shareaza traffic on port 6346, but allow other traffic on port 6346.
• a rule blocking traffic originating from a file sharing program such as Shareaza will use patterns in the traffic to block Shareaza traffic on port 6346, but allow other traffic on port 6346.
• Some embodiments of the invention therefore provide a mechanism for sharing state information such as application type or other such connection data with other systems in a cluster firewall, enabling multiple nodes in the firewall cluster to process the same connection. This provides the cluster the ability to load balance by moving connection responsibility between systems, to manage failure of a node in the cluster by moving its connections to another machine, and to perform other such functions.
• a firewall or intrusion protection system is implemented as a cluster or connected group of nodes that share processing traffic flowing through the firewall.
• Figure 2 shows a network with a distributed firewall, as may be used to practice some embodiments of the invention.
• a network such as the Internet 201 is coupled to an internal network 202 by a firewall, 203.
• the firewall 203 comprises an incoming traffic module 204 and an outgoing traffic module 205 that can perform functions such as load balancing and other firewall management functions.
• the firewall or intrusion protection rules are applied in firewall nodes 206, which are connected to one another by network connections as shown.
• the five nodes shown each comprise a separate computer system running an instance of firewall or related software, operable to apply rules to traffic to selectively permit or block traffic flowing between the Internet 201 and the internal network 202.
• some nodes such as nodes 1, 2, and 3 execute a firewall application, while other nodes such as 4 and 5 execute an intrusion protection system (IPS) application.
• IPS intrusion protection system
• the nodes 204 and 205 are responsible for performing functions such as load balancing traffic routed to the firewall nodes 206, ensuring that the nodes are able to work together efficiently to provide higher throughput capability than a single node.
• firewall embodiments perform complex connection identification functions that go beyond simple application of port, IP, and other such rules to a data stream.
• some firewall examples include an application identification module that is operable to monitor the first several packets of a new connection, and to identify the application that has initiated the connection based on application communication profile information. Once the application is determined, application-specific rules can be applied to the connection, providing enhanced ability to control the data flowing through the firewall.
• firewall node at 206 fails, another node can simply pick up the connection and apply the same traditional firewall rules based on port, IP address, and other such characteristics. But, although the five different firewall nodes at 206 in Figure 2 can apply the same rules to a connection based on identifiable characteristics such as port and IP address, they cannot re-examine the first several packets of a link that is already established to apply application-based rules to the connection.
• Some embodiments of the invention therefore provide a mechanism for application state sharing across nodes in a firewall cluster, enabling the firewall to move a connection subject to application-based rules to another node, such as for load balancing or to recover from a failed cluster node.
• This state sharing is in one embodiment handled via a network connection linking the nodes in the firewall cluster to one another, such as is shown in Figure 2. Because session information for connections including application information is shared across nodes, the node receiving an established connection with an identified application can apply application-specific rules to either allow or deny traffic as determined by the firewall configuration.
• the state sharing in some embodiments includes broadcasting state information to all the other nodes in the firewall cluster, such that the other nodes each have knowledge of the application state of connections on other nodes.
• a master node receives the application state data and stores the data, such that at least two nodes in the cluster have application state data for connections where application state data has been identified. The master node may therefore share its application state data with a backup master node or other designated node, so that failure of the master node will not result in loss of the application state data.
• a master node receives the application state information and then broadcasts the information to other nodes.
• FIG. 3 shows an example of using application state sharing across nodes in a firewall to recover from a failed node, consistent with an example embodiment of the invention.
• a link is initiated between a computer in local network 202 and the Internet 201.
• the link between nodes is handled by node 1, which shares state information such as source and destination port and IP address as soon as the network connection is established at 302.
• the firewall can compare data patterns in the packets against data patterns associated with known applications at 303, determining in many instances what application has initiated the connection.
• the firewall node 1 then shares this application state data for the connection with other nodes at 304, and uses the application state data to apply application-specific rules to the firewall at 305.
• node 1 fails, and the connection is redirected to node 2 at 307. Because node 2 has received application state data regarding the connection from node 1 previously, node 2 is able to resume filtering the data stream including applying application-specific rules to the connection at 308.
• firewall node 1 does not fail, but an intrusion protection system node that is one of two such nodes (not pictured) fails.
• the system desires to maintain a certain balance between the number of nodes providing firewall service and the number of nodes providing intrusion protection, and in this example the intrusion protection system has lost half its capacity when one of its two nodes failed.
• the system therefore reassigns firewall node 1 to replace the failed intrusion protection node, resulting in connections previously handled by firewall node 1 being redistributed across firewall nodes 2-5, as shown in Figure 2.
• a method of operating a firewall cluster comprises a process consisting of receiving a connection in a first node of a firewall cluster having three or more nodes; monitoring packets of the received connection and determining application state data associated with the connection from the monitored packets in the first node; and sharing application state data with at least another node in the firewall cluster.
• This example can further sharing connection information regarding the received connection with at least another node in the firewall cluster after receiving the connection but before sharing application state data.
• a firewall cluster may maintain application state data containing the identity of an application associated with the connection. Sharing application state data can include broadcasting the application state data to the other nodes in the firewall cluster or sending the application state data to a master node.
• the master node can also be configured for broadcasting the application state data to other nodes in the firewall cluster.
• the firewall cluster can also use the shared application state data associated with the connection to filter the connection in another node upon failure of the first node or use the shared application state data associated with the connection to filter the connection in another node to provide load balancing in the firewall cluster.
• a firewall cluster could include a first node operable to receive a connection in a firewall cluster having three or more nodes, monitor packets of the received connection and determine application state data associated with the connection from the monitored packets in the first node, and share application state data with at least another node in the firewall cluster.
• the first node could also be further operable to share connection information regarding the received connection with at least another node in the firewall cluster after receiving the connection but before sharing application state data.
• This example can of course include some or all elements described in the previous example.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
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• Signal Processing (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)

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• 2011
  • 2011-09-08 US US13/227,825 patent/US8763106B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2012
  • 2012-09-06 EP EP20120829364 patent/EP2754264A4/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2012-09-06 CN CN201510061714.8A patent/CN104601597B/zh active Active
  • 2012-09-06 WO PCT/US2012/053971 patent/WO2013036646A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2012-09-06 CN CN201280043666.4A patent/CN103858382B/zh active Active
  • 2012-09-06 KR KR1020147006134A patent/KR101531472B1/ko active Active
  • 2012-09-06 JP JP2014529854A patent/JP5816374B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2014
  • 2014-06-09 US US14/299,551 patent/US9876763B2/en active Active
• 2015
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