Granted Patent B2

US 12,519,755 · App. 18/361,721 · Granted Jan 6, 2026

Inventors: John G. Andrews (Cleveland Heights, OH); John P. Keyerleber (Richmond Heights, OH); Tomas H. McMonigal (Charlotte, NC)

Assignee: SCATR CORP

H04L63/029H04L9/0819H04L63/0428H04L12/4633

Abstract

Claims (47)

1 . A scatter network device, comprising:

a non-transitory memory;

at least one processor; and

a scattering application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor:

monitors a socket for the presence of data;

monitors for an occurrence of a trigger event, the trigger event selected from among the receipt of data at the socket or setting of a network tunnel (TUN) packet ready flag;

responsive to detecting receipt of the data at the socket, determines a type of the data;

responsive to determining the type of the data, services the data; and

responsive to not detecting data at the socket and detecting the setting of the TUN packet ready flag, services the TUN data.

2 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , the scattering application performs the monitoring, detecting, and servicing in a single thread of execution.

3 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , wherein determining the type of data includes determining that the data is key exchange data.

4 . The scatter network device of claim 3 , wherein servicing the data includes performing an in-band key exchange via the socket.

5 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , wherein determining the type of data includes determining that the data is channel data.

6 . The scatter network device of claim 5 , wherein servicing the data includes decrypting the data and removing a header from the data.

7 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , wherein responsive to detecting data at the socket and determining that the data is not key exchange data or channel data, the scattering application monitors for TUN data.

8 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , wherein servicing the TUN data includes validating the TUN data, adding a header to the TUN data, and encrypting the TUN data with the header.

9 . The scatter network device of claim 1 , wherein the scatter network device implements a WINDOWS operating system in which the scattering application executes.

10 . A method of secure data routing in a single thread of execution, comprising:

monitoring a socket for the presence of data;

monitoring for an occurrence of a trigger event, the trigger event selected from among the receipt of data at the socket or setting of a network tunnel (TUN) packet ready flag;

responsive to detecting receipt of the data at the socket, determining a type of the data;

responsive to determining the data is key exchange data, servicing the key exchange data;

responsive to determining the data is channel data, servicing the channel data; and

responsive to determining that the data received at the sock is neither key exchange data nor channel data and detecting the setting of the TUN packet ready flag, servicing the TUN data.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein servicing the key exchange data includes performing an in-band key exchange according to the key exchange data to establish a cryptographic shared secret.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein servicing the channel data includes decrypting the channel data and removing a header from the data.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein servicing the TUN data includes validating the TUN data, adding a header to the TUN data, and encrypting the TUN data with the header.

14 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising, responsive to determining that data is not present at the socket, monitoring for TUN data.

15 . A computing device, comprising:

a non-transitory memory;

at least one processor; and

a scattering application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor:

in a first thread of execution:

monitors a socket for the presence of data;

responsive to detecting data at the socket, determine a type of the data;

responsive to determining the type of the data, services the data;

responsive to not detecting data at the socket, monitors for an indication that network tunnel (TUN) data is available; and

responsive to TUN data being available, obtains the TUN data from a shared resource, and writes the TUN data to the socket; and

in a second thread of execution:

monitors for outgoing TUN data;

responsive to detecting outgoing TUN data, writes the outgoing TUN data to the shared resource; and

provides the indication that TUN data is available.

16 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein prior to obtaining the TUN data from the shared resource, the scattering application, in the first thread of execution, locks the shared resource against changes by a thread other than the first thread of execution, and after obtaining the TUN data from the shared resource, unlocks the shared resource for changes by a thread other than the first thread of execution.

17 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein prior to writing the outgoing TUN data to the shared resource, the scattering application, in the second thread of execution, locks the shared resource against changes by a thread other than the second thread of execution, and after writing the outgoing TUN data to the shared resource, unlocks the shared resource for changes by a thread other than the second thread of execution.

18 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein servicing the data includes writing the data to the TUN.

19 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein after obtaining the TUN data from the shared resource and before writing the TUN data to the socket, the scattering application, in the first thread of execution, packages the TUN data according to a communication format of the scattering application.

20 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein servicing the data includes performing a key exchange based on the data.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (140)