Patent · US Expired

Secure firewall supporting different levels of authentication based on address or encryption status

US5983350A · kind A · utility

335Cited by
50References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 18, 1996
Grant dateNov 9, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 18, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L63/164
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for regulating the flow of messages through a firewall having a network protocol stack, wherein the network protocol stack includes an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, the method comprising establishing a security policy, determining, at the IP layer, if a message is encrypted, if the message is not encrypted, passing the unencrypted message up the network protocol stack to an application level proxy, and if the message is encrypted, decrypting the message and passing the decrypted message up the network protocol stack to the application level proxy, wherein decrypting the message includes executing a process at the IP layer to decrypt the message.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.