IP Library Granted Patent US 9,521,115
Granted Patent B1
US 9,521,115 · App. 15/080,519 · Granted Dec 13, 2016

Security policy generation using container metadata

Inventor: Marc Woolward (Santa Cruz, CA)
Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
H04L63/0263H04L63/20
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,521,115
App. No.
15/080,519
Granted
Dec 13, 2016
Kind
B1
Abstract

Methods, systems, and media for producing a firewall rule set are provided herein. Exemplary methods may include: receiving metadata about a deployed container from a container orchestration layer; determining an application or service associated with the container from the received metadata; retrieving at least one model using the determined application or service, the at least one model identifying expected network communications behavior of the container; and generating a high-level declarative security policy associated with the container using the at least one model, the high-level declarative security policy indicating at least an application or service with which the container can communicate.

Claims (44)

1. A method for security in a container-based virtualization environment comprising:

receiving metadata about a deployed container from a container orchestration layer, the metadata including an image type of the deployed container, the deployed container being deployed in a hardware server;

determining an application or service performed by the deployed container from the received metadata;

retrieving at least one model using the determined application or service, the at least one model identifying expected network communications behavior of the deployed container;

generating a high-level declarative security policy associated with the deployed container using the at least one model, the high-level declarative security policy indicating at least an application or service with which the deployed container communicates; and

launching a compiler, the compiler producing a low-level firewall rule set using the high-level declarative security policy, the low-level firewall rule set being provided to an enforcement point, the enforcement point applying the low-level firewall rule set to data network traffic.

2. The method of claim 1 , in which the metadata is received from the container orchestration layer using at least an application programming interface (API).

3. The method of claim 1 , in which:

the metadata further includes at least one of an image name, service name, ports, and other tags and/or labels associated with the deployed container; and

the at least one of the image name, service name, ports, and other tags and/or labels is associated with the determined application or service.

4. The method of claim 1 , in which the determining the application or service includes:

identifying the determined application or service using the image type.

5. The method of claim 1 , in which the deployed container is at least one of: a Docker container and a Rocket (rkt) container.

6. The method of claim 5 , in which the container orchestration layer is at least one of: Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Diego, and Mesos.

7. The method of claim 1 , in which the determined application or service is at least one of: a database, email server, message queue, web server, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server, file server, object-based storage, naming system, storage networking, and directory.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a potential violation of the high-level declarative security policy using the low-level firewall rule set; and

performing at least one of: sending an alert, dropping communications associated with the potential violation, and forwarding communications associated with the potential violation.

9. A system for security in a container-based virtualization environment comprising:

a hardware processor; and

a memory coupled to the hardware processor, the memory storing instructions which are executable by the hardware processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving metadata about a deployed container from a container orchestration layer, the metadata including an image type of the deployed container, the deployed container being deployed in a hardware server;

determining an application or service performed by the deployed container from the received metadata;

retrieving at least one model using the determined application or service, the at least one model identifying expected network communications behavior of the deployed container;

generating a high-level declarative security policy associated with the deployed container using the at least one model, the high-level declarative security policy indicating at least an application or service with which the deployed container communicates; and

launching a compiler, the compiler producing a low-level firewall rule set using the high-level declarative security policy, the low-level firewall rule set being provided to an enforcement point, the enforcement point applying the low-level firewall rule set to data network traffic.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the metadata is received from the container orchestration layer using at least an application programming interface (API).

11. The system of claim 9 , in which:

the metadata further includes at least one of an image name, service name, ports, and other tags and/or labels associated with the deployed container; and

the at least one of the image name, service name, ports, and other tags and/or labels is associated with the determined application or service.

12. The system of claim 9 , in which the determining the application or service includes:

identifying the determined application or service using the image type.

13. The system of claim 9 , in which the deployed container is at least one of: a Docker container and a Rocket (rkt) container.

14. The system of claim 13 , in which the container orchestration layer is at least one of: Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Diego, and Mesos.

15. The system of claim 9 , in which the determined application or service is at least one of: a database, email server, message queue, web server, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server, file server, object-based storage, naming system, storage networking, and directory.

16. The system of claim 9 , in which the method further comprises:

determining a potential violation of the high-level declarative security policy using the low-level firewall rule set; and

performing at least one of: sending an alert, dropping communications associated with the potential violation, and forwarding communications associated with the potential violation.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for security in a container-based virtualization environment, the method comprising:

receiving metadata about a deployed container from a container orchestration layer, the metadata including an image type of the deployed container, the deployed container being deployed in a hardware server;

determining an application or service performed by the deployed container from the received metadata;

retrieving at least one model using the determined application or service, the at least one model identifying expected network communications behavior of the deployed container;

generating a high-level declarative security policy associated with the deployed container using the at least one model, the high-level declarative security policy indicating at least an application or service with which the deployed container communicates; and

launching a compiler, the compiler producing a low-level firewall rule set using the high-level declarative security policy, the low-level firewall rule set being provided to an enforcement point, the enforcement point applying the low-level firewall rule set to data network traffic.

Assignments (4)
PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Jul 18, 2025
From: GRYPHO5, LLC
To: EVP CREDIT SPV I LP
Reel/Frame 072053/0141 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 20, 2025
From: VARMOUR NETWORKS, INC.
To: GRYPHO5, LLC
Reel/Frame 070287/0007 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Feb 22, 2024
From: VARMOUR NETWORKS, INC.
To: FIRST-CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY
Reel/Frame 066530/0399 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 9, 2016
From: WOOLWARD, MARC
To: VARMOUR NETWORKS, INC.
Reel/Frame 039387/0447 →