U.S. patent application number 13/898167 was filed with the patent office on 2014-10-02 for validating the identity of a mobile application for mobile application management.
The applicant listed for this patent is CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC.. Invention is credited to Gary Barton, Zhongmin Lang, James Robert Walker.
Application Number | 20140298420 13/898167 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50977092 |
Filed Date | 2014-10-02 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140298420 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Barton; Gary ; et
al. |
October 2, 2014 |
Validating the Identity of a Mobile Application for Mobile
Application Management
Abstract
A method of managing access to enterprise resources is provided.
An access manager may operate at a mobile device to validate a
mobile application installed at that mobile device. If the access
manager does not successfully validate the mobile application, the
access manager may prevent the mobile application from accessing
computing resource. If the access manager does successfully
validate the mobile application, then the access manager may
identify the mobile application as a trusted mobile application.
The access manager may thus permit the trusted mobile application
to access the computing resource.
Inventors: |
Barton; Gary; (Boca Raton,
FL) ; Lang; Zhongmin; (Parkland, FL) ; Walker;
James Robert; (Deerfield Beach, FL) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC. |
Fort Lauderdale |
FL |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
50977092 |
Appl. No.: |
13/898167 |
Filed: |
May 20, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61806577 |
Mar 29, 2013 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
726/4 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 2221/033 20130101;
G06F 21/53 20130101; H04W 12/08 20130101; G06F 21/33 20130101; G06F
2221/2103 20130101; H04W 12/06 20130101; G06F 21/44 20130101; H04W
12/0027 20190101; H04L 63/102 20130101; G06F 21/51 20130101; G06F
2221/2115 20130101; H04L 63/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
726/4 |
International
Class: |
H04L 29/06 20060101
H04L029/06 |
Claims
1. A method of managing access to enterprise resources comprising:
operating an access manager at a mobile computing device;
validating a mobile application installed at the mobile computing
device using the access manager; preventing the mobile application
from accessing computing resource upon unsuccessful validation of
the mobile application by the access manager; identifying the
mobile application as a trusted mobile application upon successful
validation of the mobile application by the access manager; and
permitting the trusted mobile application to access the computing
resource.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: storing identification
information associated with the mobile application at the mobile
computing device; and wherein validating a mobile application
includes validating the mobile application based on the stored
identification information.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein validating the mobile application
further includes: challenging the mobile application to provide a
response that identifies the mobile application; generating an
expected response based, at least in part, on the stored
identification information; comparing the expected response to the
response provided by the mobile application; determining the mobile
application is valid when the expected response matches the
response provided by the mobile application; and determining the
mobile application is invalid when the expected response does not
match the response provided by the mobile application.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising: embedding
identification tokens into the mobile application before the mobile
application is installed at the mobile computing device;
configuring the mobile application to extract the embedded
identification tokens; and including the embedded identification
tokens in the stored identification information such that the
expected response is based, at least in part, on the embedded
identification tokens; and wherein the response provided by the
mobile application is based, at least in part, on the embedded
identifications tokens extracted from the mobile application.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein validating the mobile application
further includes: deriving one or more identification tokens from
the mobile application using the access manager; generating an
expected application signature based on an arrangement of the
embedded identification tokens and the derived identification
tokens; and generating the expected response further based, at
least in part, on the expected application signature.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein validating the mobile application
further includes: providing a nonce to the mobile application;
computing an expected hash value using the expected application
signature and the nonce; and wherein the expected response is the
expected hash value.
7. The method of claim 2 wherein the stored identification
information is an original digital certificate generated for the
mobile application upon creation of the mobile application.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein validating the mobile application
includes: computing a first hash value based on the original
digital certificate and a second hash value based on a digital
certificate received from a mobile operating system of the mobile
computing device; comparing the first hash value to the second hash
value; determining the mobile application is valid when the first
hash value matches the second hash value; and determining the
mobile application is invalid when the first hash value does not
match the second hash value.
9. The method of claim 2 further comprising: opening a Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) socket at the mobile computing device using
the access manager; waiting for the mobile application to establish
a connection with the access manager at the TCP socket; and wherein
the access manager initiates validation of the mobile application
when the mobile application establishes a connection with the
access manager at the TCP socket.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising: obtaining an
application policy associated with the trusted mobile application;
storing the application policy at the mobile computing device; and
controlling operation of the trusted mobile application using the
access manager and based on the application policy.
11. A mobile computing device comprising: a mobile application
configured to access computing resource; stored identification
information associated with the mobile application; an access
manager configured to validate the mobile application based on the
stored identification information; and wherein the access manager
is further configured to prevent the mobile application from
accessing the computing resource upon unsuccessful validation of
the mobile application, identify the mobile application as a
trusted mobile application upon successful validation of the mobile
application, and permit the trusted mobile application to access
the computing resource.
12. The mobile computing device of claim 11 wherein the access
manager is further configured to: challenge the mobile application
to provide a response that identifies the mobile application;
generate an expected response based, at least in part, on the
stored identification information; compare the expected response to
the response provided by the mobile application; determine the
mobile application is valid when the expected response matches the
response provided by the mobile application; and determine the
mobile application is invalid when the expected response does not
match the response provided by the mobile application.
13. The mobile computing device of claim 12 wherein: the mobile
application includes embedded identification tokens and is
configured to extract the embedded identification tokens; the
stored identification information includes the embedded
identification tokens such that the expected response is based, at
least in part, on the embedded identification tokens; and wherein
the response provided by the mobile application is based, at least
in part, on the embedded identifications tokens extracted from the
mobile application.
14. The mobile computing device of claim 13 wherein the access
manager is further configured to: derive one or more identification
tokens from the mobile application; generate an expected
application signature based on an arrangement of the embedded
identification tokens and the derived identification tokens; and
generate the expected response further based, at least in part, on
the expected application signature.
15. The mobile computing device of claim 14 wherein the access
manager is further configured to: provide a nonce to the mobile
application; compute an expected hash value using the expected
application signature and the nonce; and wherein the expected
response is the expected hash value.
16. The mobile computing device of claim 11 wherein the stored
identification information is an original digital certificate
generated for the mobile application upon creation of the mobile
application.
17. The mobile computing device of claim 16 further comprising a
mobile operating system wherein the access manager is further
configured to: compute a first hash value based on the original
digital certificate and a second hash value based on a digital
certificate received from the mobile operating system; compare the
first hash value to the second hash value; determine the mobile
application is valid when the first hash value matches the second
hash value; and determine the mobile application is invalid when
the first hash value does not match the second hash value.
18. The mobile computing device of claim 11 wherein the computing
resource is at least one of: i) a software application operating at
the mobile computing device or a remote computing system; ii) a
service provided by the mobile computing device of the remote
computing system; iii) data stored at the mobile computing device
or the remote computing system; iv) hardware at the mobile
computing device or the remote computing system; and v)
combinations thereof.
19. The mobile computing device of claim 11 further comprising: an
application policy associated with the mobile device; and wherein
the access manager is configured to control operation of the
trusted mobile application based on the application policy.
20. An access manager configured to operate at a mobile computing
device and configured to: validate a mobile application installed
at the mobile computing device based on identification information
stored at the mobile computing device and associated with the
mobile application; prevent the mobile application from accessing
computing resource upon unsuccessful validation of the mobile
application; identify the mobile application as a trusted mobile
application upon successful validation of the mobile application;
permit the trusted mobile application to access the computing
resource; and control operation of the trusted mobile application
based on an application policy stored at the mobile computing
device.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to U.S. Provisional Application
Ser. No. 61/806,557, filed Mar. 29, 2013, and entitled "Systems and
Methods for Enterprise Mobility Management," which is herein
incorporated by reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] Aspects described herein generally relate to management of
mobile applications at mobile computing devices. More specifically,
various aspects provide approaches to validating a mobile
application operating at an unmanaged device and controlling
execution of that mobile application.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The use of mobile computing devices continues to grow. In
particular, business and other enterprises have come to rely on
mobile computing devices to allow individuals to remotely access
various computing resources. Such resources may include, for
example, electronic mail services, file services, data, and other
electronic resources provided by the computer systems of an
enterprise or the mobile device itself.
[0004] Whether an individual is located locally or remotely
relative to computing resources, an enterprise may seek to protect
and control access to those resources. Accordingly, an enterprise
may implement various technological mechanisms (e.g., gateways and
firewalls) as well as access control mechanisms (e.g., user
authentication and authorization) in order to ensure an individual
can only access the resources that individual is authorized and
entitled to access. Such mechanisms may also prevent unauthorized
individuals from accessing any of the computing resources.
[0005] With respect to mobile devices, an enterprise may employ
various approaches to control remote access to computing resources
from those mobile devices. This endeavor may be referred to as
mobile device management. In one approach, an enterprise may
provide an individual with a company-owned and company-controlled
mobile device. Such a device may be configured such that the
enterprise has control over the configuration, functionality,
operation, and data of the mobile device. In this regard, the
company-controlled mobile device may be referred to as a managed
device. The enterprise may remotely control the managed device via,
e.g., a client-server architecture. An enterprise server may
remotely issue commands to a client application residing at the
managed device. Such commands may include, e.g., installing new
applications or functionality, updating existing applications or
functionality, updating configuration settings, providing data, and
so forth. If the managed device is lost or stolen, the enterprise
may issue commands to lock or wipe the device in order to prevent
an unauthorized individual from gaining access to the device or
from gaining access to the resources via the device.
[0006] Individuals, however, may find it inconvenient to maintain
both a company-owned mobile device as well as a personal mobile
device. Instead, individuals may prefer to access the resources
from their personal mobile devices. This practice may be referred
to as BYOD, bring-your-own-device. Because these personal devices
may not be company-controlled, such personal devices may be
referred to as unmanaged devices. To accommodate this preference,
solutions to allow unmanaged devices to access these resources are
currently in development.
[0007] For example, providing a company-controlled mobile
application, a managed mobile application, that is configured to
operate at an unmanaged device is one approach currently in
development. However, challenges remain. For managed mobile
applications operating on an unmanaged device to be a viable
approach, mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to or use of
resources via the managed mobile application may be needed. In
particular, there exists a need to validate the identity of a
managed mobile application to ensure the managed mobile application
has been altered to circumvent the security mechanisms that protect
the resources. In addition, there exists a need to control the
operation of the managed mobile application at the unmanaged mobile
device.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0008] The following presents a simplified summary of various
aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive
overview, and is not intended to identify key or critical elements
or to delineate the scope of the claims. The following summary
merely presents some concepts in a simplified form as an
introductory prelude to the more detailed description provided
below.
[0009] To overcome limitations in the prior art described above,
and to overcome other limitations that will be apparent upon
reading and understanding the present specification, aspects
described herein are directed towards controlling access to remote
computing resources located at an enterprise computing system using
managed mobile applications at mobile computing devices. In
addition, aspects of the present disclosure are directed towards
controlling access to local computing resources at the mobile
computing devices themselves. An access manager may perform a
validation process that determines whether a mobile application
requesting access to computing resources has accurately identified
itself and has not been subsequently altered after installation at
the mobile computing device. In this way, the access manager may
ensure the mobile application requesting access to the computing
resource can be trusted and is not attempting to circumvent the
security mechanisms used to protect those resources. As a result,
individuals associated with the enterprise may advantageously
utilize remote and local computing resources with their personal
mobile devices.
[0010] A first aspect described herein provides a method of
managing access to computing resources. An access manager may
operate at a mobile device to validate a mobile application
installed at that mobile device. If the access manager does not
successfully validate the mobile application, the access manager
may prevent the mobile application from accessing a computing
resource. If the access manager does successfully validate the
mobile application, then the access manager may identify the mobile
application as a trusted mobile application. The access manager may
thus permit the trusted mobile application to access the computing
resource.
[0011] A second aspect described herein provides a mobile computing
device. The mobile computing device may include a mobile
application configured to access a computing resource, stored
identification information associated with the mobile application,
and an access manager. The access manager may be configured to
validate the mobile application and prevent or permit access to the
computing resource as described above.
[0012] A third aspect described herein provides an access manager
configured to operate at a mobile device. The access manager may
also be configured to validate a mobile application at the mobile
device and prevent or permit access to a computing resource via the
mobile application as described above. The access manager may
further be configured to control operation of the mobile
application based on an application policy stored at the mobile
application.
[0013] Some aspects described herein provide that the stored
identification information may be an original digital certificate
associated and created along with the mobile application. The
access manager may validate the mobile application by comparing the
original digital certificate created for the mobile application
with a digital certificate received from a mobile operating system
at the mobile computing device. The computing resources may be
located locally or remotely relative to the mobile computing
device. Examples of computing resources include a software
application operating at the mobile computing device or a remote
computing system, a service provided by the mobile computing device
or a remote computing system, data stored at the mobile computing
device or the remote computing system, hardware at the mobile
computing device or the remote computing system, and combinations
of such.
[0014] The stored identification information may also be
identification tokens embedded into the mobile application upon
creation or derived from the mobile application. An application
signature may be constructed based on an arrangement of the
embedded and derive identification tokens. The access manager may
also provide the mobile application with a nonce during validation,
and use the nonce to compute an expected hash value using the
application signature and the nonce. The access manager may
generate an expected response, e.g., an expected hash value, and
compare the expected response to a response received from the
mobile application following a challenge from the access
manager.
[0015] These and additional aspects will be appreciated with the
benefit of the disclosures discussed in further detail below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] A more complete understanding of aspects described herein
and the advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the
following description in consideration of the accompanying
drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features,
and wherein:
[0017] FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative computer system architecture
that may be used in accordance with one or more illustrative
aspects described herein.
[0018] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative remote-access system
architecture that may be used in accordance with one or more
illustrative aspects described herein.
[0019] FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative virtualized (hypervisor)
system architecture that may be used in accordance with one or more
illustrative aspects described herein.
[0020] FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative cloud-based system
architecture that may be used in accordance with one or more
illustrative aspects described herein.
[0021] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative enterprise mobility
management system.
[0022] FIG. 6 depicts another illustrative enterprise mobility
management system.
[0023] FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative mobile device management
system.
[0024] FIG. 8 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative
application signature and challenge response for a managed mobile
application.
[0025] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of example method steps for managing a
mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device.
[0026] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of example method steps for preparing
a managed mobile application for managed operation at an unmanaged
mobile device.
[0027] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of example method steps for
initializing a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device.
[0028] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of example method steps for
validating a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device having a first type of mobile operating system.
[0029] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of example method steps for
validating a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device having a second type of mobile operating system.
[0030] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of example method steps for enforcing
application policies during operation of a managed mobile
application.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0031] In the following description of the various embodiments,
reference is made to the accompanying drawings identified above and
which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of
illustration various embodiments in which aspects described herein
may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may
be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made
without departing from the scope described herein. Various aspects
are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being
carried out in various different ways.
[0032] As a general introduction to the subject matter described in
more detail below, aspects described herein are directed towards
controlling remote and local access to computing resources at a
remotely located enterprise computing system or at mobile computing
devices themselves. An access manager may perform a validation
process that determines whether a mobile application requesting
access to computing resources has accurately identified itself and
has not been subsequently altered after installation at the mobile
computing device. In this way, the access manager may ensure the
mobile application requesting access to the computing resource can
be trusted and is not attempting to circumvent the security
mechanisms used to protect those resources. As a result,
individuals associated with the enterprise may advantageously
utilize computing resources at their personal mobile devices.
Computing resources may be located locally or remotely relative to
the mobile computing device. Examples of computing resources
include a software application operating at the mobile computing
device or a remote computing system, a service provided by the
mobile computing device or a remote computing system, data stored
at the mobile computing device or the remote computing system,
hardware at the mobile computing device or the remote computing
system, and combinations of such. In the present disclosure,
computing resources that are remotely located at a computing system
of an enterprise are referred to as enterprise resources.
[0033] It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology
used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be
regarded as limiting. Rather, the phrases and terms used herein are
to be given their broadest interpretation and meaning. The use of
"including" and "comprising" and variations thereof is meant to
encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as
well as additional items and equivalents thereof. The use of the
terms "mounted," "connected," "coupled," "positioned," "engaged"
and similar terms, is meant to include both direct and indirect
mounting, connecting, coupling, positioning and engaging.
[0034] Computing Architecture
[0035] Computer software, hardware, and networks may be utilized in
a variety of different system environments, including standalone,
networked, remote-access (aka, remote desktop), virtualized, and/or
cloud-based environments, among others. FIG. 1 illustrates one
example of a system architecture and data processing device that
may be used to implement one or more illustrative aspects of the
disclosure in a standalone and/or networked environment. Various
network nodes 103, 105, 107, and 109 may be interconnected via a
wide area network (WAN) 101, such as the Internet. Other networks
may also or alternatively be used, including private intranets,
corporate networks, LANs, metropolitan area networks (MAN) wireless
networks, personal networks (PAN), and the like. Network 101 is for
illustration purposes and may be replaced with fewer or additional
computer networks. A local area network (LAN) may have one or more
of any known LAN topology and may use one or more of a variety of
different protocols, such as Ethernet. Devices 103, 105, 107, 109
and other devices (not shown) may be connected to one or more of
the networks via twisted pair wires, coaxial cable, fiber optics,
radio waves or other communication media.
[0036] The term "network" as used herein and depicted in the
drawings refers not only to systems in which remote storage devices
are coupled together via one or more communication paths, but also
to stand-alone devices that may be coupled, from time to time, to
such systems that have storage capability. Consequently, the term
"network" includes not only a "physical network" but also a
"content network," which is comprised of the data--attributable to
a single entity--which resides across all physical networks.
[0037] The components may include data server 103, web server 105,
and client computers 107, 109. Data server 103 provides overall
access, control and administration of databases and control
software for performing one or more illustrative aspects of the
disclosure as described herein. Data server 103 may be connected to
web server 105 through which users interact with and obtain data as
requested. Alternatively, data server 103 may act as a web server
itself and be directly connected to the Internet. Data server 103
may be connected to web server 105 through the network 101 (e.g.,
the Internet), via direct or indirect connection, or via some other
network. Users may interact with the data server 103 using remote
computers 107, 109, e.g., using a web browser to connect to the
data server 103 via one or more externally exposed web sites hosted
by web server 105. Client computers 107, 109 may be used in concert
with data server 103 to access data stored therein, or may be used
for other purposes. For example, from client device 107 a user may
access web server 105 using an Internet browser, as is known in the
art, or by executing a software application that communicates with
web server 105 and/or data server 103 over a computer network (such
as the Internet).
[0038] Servers and applications may be combined on the same
physical machines, and retain separate virtual or logical
addresses, or may reside on separate physical machines. FIG. 1
illustrates just one example of a network architecture that may be
used, and those of skill in the art will appreciate that the
specific network architecture and data processing devices used may
vary, and are secondary to the functionality that they provide, as
further described herein. For example, services provided by web
server 105 and data server 103 may be combined on a single
server.
[0039] Each component 103, 105, 107, 109 may be any type of known
computer, server, or data processing device. Data server 103, e.g.,
may include a processor 111 controlling overall operation of the
rate server 103. Data server 103 may further include RAM 113, ROM
115, network interface 117, input/output interfaces 119 (e.g.,
keyboard, mouse, display, printer, etc.), and memory 121. I/O 119
may include a variety of interface units and drives for reading,
writing, displaying, and/or printing data or files. Memory 121 may
further store operating system software 123 for controlling overall
operation of the data processing device 103, control logic 125 for
instructing data server 103 to perform aspects of the disclosure as
described herein, and other application software 127 providing
secondary, support, and/or other functionality which may or may not
be used in conjunction with aspects of the present disclosure. The
control logic may also be referred to herein as the data server
software 125. Functionality of the data server software may refer
to operations or decisions made automatically based on rules coded
into the control logic, made manually by a user providing input
into the system, and/or a combination of automatic processing based
on user input (e.g., queries, data updates, etc.).
[0040] Memory 121 may also store data used in performance of one or
more aspects of the disclosure, including a first database 129 and
a second database 131. In some embodiments, the first database may
include the second database (e.g., as a separate table, report,
etc.). That is, the information can be stored in a single database,
or separated into different logical, virtual, or physical
databases, depending on system design. Devices 105, 107, 109 may
have similar or different architecture as described with respect to
device 103. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the
functionality of data processing device 103 (or device 105, 107,
109) as described herein may be spread across multiple data
processing devices, for example, to distribute processing load
across multiple computers, to segregate transactions based on
geographic location, user access level, quality of service (QoS),
etc.
[0041] One or more aspects may be embodied in computer-usable or
readable data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as in
one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or
other devices as described herein. Generally, program modules
include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,
etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract
data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other
device. The modules may be written in a source code programming
language that is subsequently compiled for execution, or may be
written in a scripting language such as (but not limited to) HTML
or XML. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a
computer readable medium such as a nonvolatile storage device. Any
suitable computer readable storage media may be utilized, including
hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage
devices, and/or any combination thereof. In addition, various
transmission (non-storage) media representing data or events as
described herein may be transferred between a source and a
destination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling through
signal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/or
wireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space). Various
aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, a data
processing system, or a computer program product. Therefore,
various functionality may be embodied in whole or in part in
software, firmware and/or hardware or hardware equivalents such as
integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the
like. Particular data structures may be used to more effectively
implement one or more aspects of the disclosure, and such data
structures are contemplated within the scope of computer executable
instructions and computer-usable data described herein.
[0042] With further reference to FIG. 2, one or more aspects
described herein may be implemented in a remote-access environment.
FIG. 2 depicts an example system architecture including a generic
computing device 201 in an illustrative computing environment 200
that may be used according to one or more illustrative aspects
described herein. Generic computing device 201 may be used as a
server 206a in a single-server or multi-server desktop
virtualization system (e.g., a remote access or cloud system)
configured to provide virtual machines for client access devices.
The generic computing device 201 may have a processor 203 for
controlling overall operation of the server and its associated
components, including random access memory (RAM) 205, read-only
memory (ROM) 207, input/output (I/O) module 209, and memory
215.
[0043] I/O module 209 may include a mouse, keypad, touch screen,
scanner, optical reader, and/or stylus (or other input device(s))
through which a user of generic computing device 201 may provide
input, and may also include one or more of a speaker for providing
audio output and a video display device for providing textual,
audiovisual, and/or graphical output. Software may be stored within
memory 215 and/or other storage to provide instructions to
processor 203 for configuring generic computing device 201 into a
special purpose computing device in order to perform various
functions as described herein. For example, memory 215 may store
software used by the computing device 201, such as an operating
system 217, application programs 219, and an associated database
221.
[0044] Computing device 201 may operate in a networked environment
supporting connections to one or more remote computers, such as
terminals 240 (also referred to as client devices). The terminals
240 may be personal computers, mobile devices, laptop computers,
tablets, or servers that include many or all of the elements
described above with respect to the generic computing device 103 or
201. The network connections depicted in FIG. 2 include a local
area network (LAN) 225 and a wide area network (WAN) 229, but may
also include other networks. When used in a LAN networking
environment, computing device 201 may be connected to the LAN 225
through a network interface or adapter 223. When used in a WAN
networking environment, computing device 201 may include a modem
227 or other wide area network interface for establishing
communications over the WAN 229, such as computer network 230
(e.g., the Internet). It will be appreciated that the network
connections shown are illustrative and other means of establishing
a communications link between the computers may be used. Computing
device 201 and/or terminals 240 may also be mobile terminals (e.g.,
mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, notebooks, etc.) including
various other components, such as a battery, speaker, and antennas
(not shown).
[0045] Aspects described herein may also be operational with
numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system
environments or configurations. Examples of other computing
systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable
for use with aspects described herein include, but are not limited
to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop
devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set
top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,
minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing
environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and
the like.
[0046] As shown in FIG. 2, one or more client devices 240 may be in
communication with one or more servers 206a-206n (generally
referred to herein as "server(s) 206"). In one embodiment, the
computing environment 200 may include a network appliance installed
between the server(s) 206 and client machine(s) 240. The network
appliance may manage client/server connections, and in some cases
can load balance client connections amongst a plurality of backend
servers 206.
[0047] The client machine(s) 240 may in some embodiments be
referred to as a single client machine 240 or a single group of
client machines 240, while server(s) 206 may be referred to as a
single server 206 or a single group of servers 206. In one
embodiment a single client machine 240 communicates with more than
one server 206, while in another embodiment a single server 206
communicates with more than one client machine 240. In yet another
embodiment, a single client machine 240 communicates with a single
server 206.
[0048] A client machine 240 can, in some embodiments, be referenced
by any one of the following non-exhaustive terms: client
machine(s); client(s); client computer(s); client device(s); client
computing device(s); local machine; remote machine; client node(s);
endpoint(s); or endpoint node(s). The server 206, in some
embodiments, may be referenced by any one of the following
non-exhaustive terms: server(s), local machine; remote machine;
server farm(s), or host computing device(s).
[0049] In one embodiment, the client machine 240 may be a virtual
machine. The virtual machine may be any virtual machine, while in
some embodiments the virtual machine may be any virtual machine
managed by a Type 1 or Type 2 hypervisor, for example, a hypervisor
developed by Citrix Systems, IBM, VMware, or any other hypervisor.
In some aspects, the virtual machine may be managed by a
hypervisor, while in aspects the virtual machine may be managed by
a hypervisor executing on a server 206 or a hypervisor executing on
a client 240.
[0050] Some embodiments include a client device 240 that displays
application output generated by an application remotely executing
on a server 206 or other remotely located machine. In these
embodiments, the client device 240 may execute a virtual machine
receiver program or application to display the output in an
application window, a browser, or other output window. In one
example, the application is a desktop, while in other examples the
application is an application that generates or presents a desktop.
A desktop may include a graphical shell providing a user interface
for an instance of an operating system in which local and/or remote
applications can be integrated. Applications, as used herein, are
programs that execute after an instance of an operating system
(and, optionally, also the desktop) has been loaded.
[0051] The server 206, in some embodiments, uses a remote
presentation protocol or other program to send data to a
thin-client or remote-display application executing on the client
to present display output generated by an application executing on
the server 206. The thin-client or remote-display protocol can be
any one of the following non-exhaustive list of protocols: the
Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol developed by
Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the Remote Desktop
Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation of
Redmond, Wash.
[0052] A remote computing environment may include more than one
server 206a-206n such that the servers 206a-206n are logically
grouped together into a server farm 206, for example, in a cloud
computing environment. The server farm 206 may include servers 206
that are geographically dispersed while and logically grouped
together, or servers 206 that are located proximate to each other
while logically grouped together. Geographically dispersed servers
206a-206n within a server farm 206 can, in some embodiments,
communicate using a WAN (wide), MAN (metropolitan), or LAN (local),
where different geographic regions can be characterized as:
different continents; different regions of a continent; different
countries; different states; different cities; different campuses;
different rooms; or any combination of the preceding geographical
locations. In some embodiments the server farm 206 may be
administered as a single entity, while in other embodiments the
server farm 206 can include multiple server farms.
[0053] In some embodiments, a server farm may include servers 206
that execute a substantially similar type of operating system
platform (e.g., WINDOWS, UNIX, LINUX, iOS, ANDROID, SYMBIAN, etc.)
In other embodiments, server farm 206 may include a first group of
one or more servers that execute a first type of operating system
platform, and a second group of one or more servers that execute a
second type of operating system platform.
[0054] Server 206 may be configured as any type of server, as
needed, e.g., a file server, an application server, a web server, a
proxy server, an appliance, a network appliance, a gateway, an
application gateway, a gateway server, a virtualization server, a
deployment server, an SSL VPN server, a firewall, a web server, an
application server or as a master application server, a server
executing an active directory, or a server executing an application
acceleration program that provides firewall functionality,
application functionality, or load balancing functionality. Other
server types may also be used.
[0055] Some embodiments include a first server 106a that receives
requests from a client machine 240, forwards the request to a
second server 106b, and responds to the request generated by the
client machine 240 with a response from the second server 106b.
First server 106a may acquire an enumeration of applications
available to the client machine 240 as well as address information
associated with an application server 206 hosting an application
identified within the enumeration of applications. First server
106a can then present a response to the client's request using a
web interface, and communicate directly with the client 240 to
provide the client 240 with access to an identified application.
One or more clients 240 and/or one or more servers 206 may transmit
data over network 230, e.g., network 101.
[0056] FIG. 2 shows a high-level architecture of an illustrative
desktop virtualization system. As shown, the desktop virtualization
system may be single-server or multi-server system, or cloud
system, including at least one virtualization server 206 configured
to provide virtual desktops and/or virtual applications to one or
more client access devices 240. As used herein, a desktop refers to
a graphical environment or space in which one or more applications
may be hosted and/or executed. A desktop may include a graphical
shell providing a user interface for an instance of an operating
system in which local and/or remote applications can be integrated.
Applications may include programs that execute after an instance of
an operating system (and, optionally, also the desktop) has been
loaded. Each instance of the operating system may be physical
(e.g., one operating system per device) or virtual (e.g., many
instances of an OS running on a single device). Each application
may be executed on a local device, or executed on a remotely
located device (e.g., remoted).
[0057] With further reference to FIG. 3, a computer device 301 may
be configured as a virtualization server in a virtualization
environment, for example, a single-server, multi-server, or cloud
computing environment. Virtualization server 301 illustrated in
FIG. 3 can be deployed as and/or implemented by one or more
embodiments of the server 206 illustrated in FIG. 2 or by other
known computing devices. Included in virtualization server 301 is a
hardware layer that can include one or more physical disks 304, one
or more physical devices 306, one or more physical processors 308
and one or more physical memories 316. In some embodiments,
firmware 312 can be stored within a memory element in the physical
memory 316 and can be executed by one or more of the physical
processors 308. Virtualization server 301 may further include an
operating system 314 that may be stored in a memory element in the
physical memory 316 and executed by one or more of the physical
processors 308. Still further, a hypervisor 302 may be stored in a
memory element in the physical memory 316 and can be executed by
one or more of the physical processors 308.
[0058] Executing on one or more of the physical processors 308 may
be one or more virtual machines 332A-C (generally 332). Each
virtual machine 332 may have a virtual disk 326A-C and a virtual
processor 328A-C. In some embodiments, a first virtual machine 332A
may execute, using a virtual processor 328A, a control program 320
that includes a tools stack 324. Control program 320 may be
referred to as a control virtual machine, Dom0, Domain 0, or other
virtual machine used for system administration and/or control. In
some embodiments, one or more virtual machines 332B-C can execute,
using a virtual processor 328B-C, a guest operating system
330A-B.
[0059] Virtualization server 301 may include a hardware layer 310
with one or more pieces of hardware that communicate with the
virtualization server 301. In some embodiments, the hardware layer
310 can include one or more physical disks 304, one or more
physical devices 306, one or more physical processors 308, and one
or more memory 316. Physical components 304, 306, 308, and 316 may
include, for example, any of the components described above.
Physical devices 306 may include, for example, a network interface
card, a video card, a keyboard, a mouse, an input device, a
monitor, a display device, speakers, an optical drive, a storage
device, a universal serial bus connection, a printer, a scanner, a
network element (e.g., router, firewall, network address
translator, load balancer, virtual private network (VPN) gateway,
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) router, etc.), or any
device connected to or communicating with virtualization server
301. Physical memory 316 in the hardware layer 310 may include any
type of memory. Physical memory 316 may store data, and in some
embodiments may store one or more programs, or set of executable
instructions. FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where firmware 312
is stored within the physical memory 316 of virtualization server
301. Programs or executable instructions stored in the physical
memory 316 can be executed by the one or more processors 308 of
virtualization server 301.
[0060] Virtualization server 301 may also include a hypervisor 302.
In some embodiments, hypervisor 302 may be a program executed by
processors 308 on virtualization server 301 to create and manage
any number of virtual machines 332. Hypervisor 302 may be referred
to as a virtual machine monitor, or platform virtualization
software. In some embodiments, hypervisor 302 can be any
combination of executable instructions and hardware that monitors
virtual machines executing on a computing machine. Hypervisor 302
may be Type 2 hypervisor, where the hypervisor that executes within
an operating system 314 executing on the virtualization server 301.
Virtual machines then execute at a level above the hypervisor. In
some embodiments, the Type 2 hypervisor executes within the context
of a user's operating system such that the Type 2 hypervisor
interacts with the user's operating system. In other embodiments,
one or more virtualization servers 301 in a virtualization
environment may instead include a Type 1 hypervisor (not shown). A
Type 1 hypervisor may execute on the virtualization server 301 by
directly accessing the hardware and resources within the hardware
layer 310. That is, while a Type 2 hypervisor 302 accesses system
resources through a host operating system 314, as shown, a Type 1
hypervisor may directly access all system resources without the
host operating system 314. A Type 1 hypervisor may execute directly
on one or more physical processors 308 of virtualization server
301, and may include program data stored in the physical memory
316.
[0061] Hypervisor 302, in some embodiments, can provide virtual
resources to operating systems 330 or control programs 320
executing on virtual machines 332 in any manner that simulates the
operating systems 330 or control programs 320 having direct access
to system resources. System resources can include, but are not
limited to, physical devices 306, physical disks 304, physical
processors 308, physical memory 316 and any other component
included in virtualization server 301 hardware layer 310.
Hypervisor 302 may be used to emulate virtual hardware, partition
physical hardware, virtualize physical hardware, and/or execute
virtual machines that provide access to computing environments. In
still other embodiments, hypervisor 302 controls processor
scheduling and memory partitioning for a virtual machine 332
executing on virtualization server 301. Hypervisor 302 may include
those manufactured by VMWare, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the XEN
hypervisor, an open source product whose development is overseen by
the open source Xen.org community; HyperV, VirtualServer or virtual
PC hypervisors provided by Microsoft, or others. In some
embodiments, virtualization server 301 executes a hypervisor 302
that creates a virtual machine platform on which guest operating
systems may execute. In these embodiments, the virtualization
server 301 may be referred to as a host server. An example of such
a virtualization server is the XEN SERVER provided by Citrix
Systems, Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
[0062] Hypervisor 302 may create one or more virtual machines
332B-C (generally 332) in which guest operating systems 330
execute. In some embodiments, hypervisor 302 may load a virtual
machine image to create a virtual machine 332. In other
embodiments, the hypervisor 302 may executes a guest operating
system 330 within virtual machine 332. In still other embodiments,
virtual machine 332 may execute guest operating system 330.
[0063] In addition to creating virtual machines 332, hypervisor 302
may control the execution of at least one virtual machine 332. In
other embodiments, hypervisor 302 may presents at least one virtual
machine 332 with an abstraction of at least one hardware resource
provided by the virtualization server 301 (e.g., any hardware
resource available within the hardware layer 310). In other
embodiments, hypervisor 302 may control the manner in which virtual
machines 332 access physical processors 308 available in
virtualization server 301. Controlling access to physical
processors 308 may include determining whether a virtual machine
332 should have access to a processor 308, and how physical
processor capabilities are presented to the virtual machine
332.
[0064] As shown in FIG. 3, virtualization server 301 may host or
execute one or more virtual machines 332. A virtual machine 332 is
a set of executable instructions that, when executed by a processor
308, imitate the operation of a physical computer such that the
virtual machine 332 can execute programs and processes much like a
physical computing device. While FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment
where a virtualization server 301 hosts three virtual machines 332,
in other embodiments virtualization server 301 can host any number
of virtual machines 332. Hypervisor 302, in some embodiments,
provides each virtual machine 332 with a unique virtual view of the
physical hardware, memory, processor and other system resources
available to that virtual machine 332. In some embodiments, the
unique virtual view can be based on one or more of virtual machine
permissions, application of a policy engine to one or more virtual
machine identifiers, a user accessing a virtual machine, the
applications executing on a virtual machine, networks accessed by a
virtual machine, or any other desired criteria. For instance,
hypervisor 302 may create one or more unsecure virtual machines 332
and one or more secure virtual machines 332. Unsecure virtual
machines 332 may be prevented from accessing resources, hardware,
memory locations, and programs that secure virtual machines 332 may
be permitted to access. In other embodiments, hypervisor 302 may
provide each virtual machine 332 with a substantially similar
virtual view of the physical hardware, memory, processor and other
system resources available to the virtual machines 332.
[0065] Each virtual machine 332 may include a virtual disk 326A-C
(generally 326) and a virtual processor 328A-C (generally 328.) The
virtual disk 326, in some embodiments, is a virtualized view of one
or more physical disks 304 of the virtualization server 301, or a
portion of one or more physical disks 304 of the virtualization
server 301. The virtualized view of the physical disks 304 can be
generated, provided and managed by the hypervisor 302. In some
embodiments, hypervisor 302 provides each virtual machine 332 with
a unique view of the physical disks 304. Thus, in these
embodiments, the particular virtual disk 326 included in each
virtual machine 332 can be unique when compared with the other
virtual disks 326.
[0066] A virtual processor 328 can be a virtualized view of one or
more physical processors 308 of the virtualization server 301. In
some embodiments, the virtualized view of the physical processors
308 can be generated, provided and managed by hypervisor 302. In
some embodiments, virtual processor 328 has substantially all of
the same characteristics of at least one physical processor 308. In
other embodiments, virtual processor 308 provides a modified view
of physical processors 308 such that at least some of the
characteristics of the virtual processor 328 are different than the
characteristics of the corresponding physical processor 308.
[0067] With further reference to FIG. 4, some aspects described
herein may be implemented in a cloud-based environment. FIG. 4
illustrates an example of a cloud computing environment (or cloud
system) 400. As seen in FIG. 4, client computers 411-414 may
communicate with a cloud management server 410 to access the
computing resources (e.g., host servers 403, storage resources 404,
and network resources 405) of the cloud system.
[0068] Management server 410 may be implemented on one or more
physical servers. The management server 410 may run, for example,
CLOUDSTACK by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., or
OPENSTACK, among others. Management server 410 may manage various
computing resources, including cloud hardware and software
resources, for example, host computers 403, data storage devices
404, and networking devices 405. The cloud hardware and software
resources may include private and/or public components. For
example, a cloud may be configured as a private cloud to be used by
one or more particular customers or client computers 411-414 and/or
over a private network. In other embodiments, public clouds or
hybrid public-private clouds may be used by other customers over an
open or hybrid networks.
[0069] Management server 410 may be configured to provide user
interfaces through which cloud operators and cloud customers may
interact with the cloud system. For example, the management server
410 may provide a set of APIs and/or one or more cloud operator
console applications (e.g., web-based on standalone applications)
with user interfaces to allow cloud operators to manage the cloud
resources, configure the virtualization layer, manage customer
accounts, and perform other cloud administration tasks. The
management server 410 also may include a set of APIs and/or one or
more customer console applications with user interfaces configured
to receive cloud computing requests from end users via client
computers 411-414, for example, requests to create, modify, or
destroy virtual machines within the cloud. Client computers 411-414
may connect to management server 410 via the Internet or other
communication network, and may request access to one or more of the
computing resources managed by management server 410. In response
to client requests, the management server 410 may include a
resource manager configured to select and provision physical
resources in the hardware layer of the cloud system based on the
client requests. For example, the management server 410 and
additional components of the cloud system may be configured to
provision, create, and manage virtual machines and their operating
environments (e.g., hypervisors, storage resources, services
offered by the network elements, etc.) for customers at client
computers 411-414, over a network (e.g., the Internet), providing
customers with computational resources, data storage services,
networking capabilities, and computer platform and application
support. Cloud systems also may be configured to provide various
specific services, including security systems, development
environments, user interfaces, and the like.
[0070] Certain clients 411-414 may be related, for example,
different client computers creating virtual machines on behalf of
the same end user, or different users affiliated with the same
company or organization. In other examples, certain clients 411-414
may be unrelated, such as users affiliated with different companies
or organizations. For unrelated clients, information on the virtual
machines or storage of any one user may be hidden from other
users.
[0071] Referring now to the physical hardware layer of a cloud
computing environment, availability zones 401-402 (or zones) may
refer to a collocated set of physical computing resources. Zones
may be geographically separated from other zones in the overall
cloud of computing resources. For example, zone 401 may be a first
cloud datacenter located in California, and zone 402 may be a
second cloud datacenter located in Florida. Management sever 410
may be located at one of the availability zones, or at a separate
location. Each zone may include an internal network that interfaces
with devices that are outside of the zone, such as the management
server 410, through a gateway. End users of the cloud (e.g.,
clients 411-414) might or might not be aware of the distinctions
between zones. For example, an end user may request the creation of
a virtual machine having a specified amount of memory, processing
power, and network capabilities. The management server 410 may
respond to the user's request and may allocate the resources to
create the virtual machine without the user knowing whether the
virtual machine was created using resources from zone 401 or zone
402. In other examples, the cloud system may allow end users to
request that virtual machines (or other cloud resources) are
allocated in a specific zone or on specific resources 403-405
within a zone.
[0072] In this example, each zone 401-402 may include an
arrangement of various physical hardware components (or computing
resources) 403-405, for example, physical hosting resources (or
processing resources), physical network resources, physical storage
resources, switches, and additional hardware resources that may be
used to provide cloud computing services to customers. The physical
hosting resources in a cloud zone 401-402 may include one or more
computer servers 403, such as the virtualization servers 301
described above, which may be configured to create and host virtual
machine instances. The physical network resources in a cloud zone
401 or 402 may include one or more network elements 405 (e.g.,
network service providers) comprising hardware and/or software
configured to provide a network service to cloud customers, such as
firewalls, network address translators, load balancers, virtual
private network (VPN) gateways, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) routers, and the like. The storage resources in the cloud
zone 401-402 may include storage disks (e.g., solid state drives
(SSDs), magnetic hard disks, etc.) and other storage devices.
[0073] The example cloud computing environment shown in FIG. 4 also
may include a virtualization layer (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-3)
with additional hardware and/or software resources configured to
create and manage virtual machines and provide other services to
customers using the physical resources in the cloud. The
virtualization layer may include hypervisors, as described above in
FIG. 3, along with other components to provide network
virtualizations, storage virtualizations, etc. The virtualization
layer may be as a separate layer from the physical resource layer,
or may share some or all of the same hardware and/or software
resources with the physical resource layer. For example, the
virtualization layer may include a hypervisor installed in each of
the virtualization servers 403 with the physical computing
resources. Known cloud systems may alternatively be used, e.g.,
WINDOWS AZURE (Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash.), AMAZON EC2
(Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle, Wash.), IBM BLUE CLOUD (IBM
Corporation of Armonk, N.Y.), or others.
[0074] Enterprise Mobility Management Architecture
[0075] FIG. 5 represents an enterprise mobility technical
architecture 500 for use in a BYOD environment. The architecture
enables a user of a mobile device 502 to both access enterprise or
personal resources from a mobile device 502 and use the mobile
device 502 for personal use. The user may access such enterprise
resources 504 or enterprise services 508 using a mobile device 502
that is purchased by the user or a mobile device 502 that is
provided by the enterprise to user. The user may utilize the mobile
device 502 for business use only or for business and personal use.
The mobile device may run an iOS operating system, and Android
operating system, or the like. The enterprise may choose to
implement policies to manage the mobile device 504. The policies
may be implanted through a firewall or gateway in such a way that
the mobile device may be identified, secured or security verified,
and provided selective or full access to the enterprise resources.
The policies may be mobile device management policies, mobile
application management policies, mobile data management policies,
or some combination of mobile device, application, and data
management policies. A mobile device 504 that is managed through
the application of mobile device management policies may be
referred to as an enrolled device.
[0076] The operating system of the mobile device may be separated
into a managed partition 510 and an unmanaged partition 512. The
managed partition 510 may have policies applied to it to secure the
applications running on and data stored in the managed partition.
The applications running on the managed partition may be secure
applications. The secure applications may be email applications,
web browsing applications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) access
applications, Windows Application access applications, and the
like. The secure applications may be secure native applications
514, secure remote applications 522 executed by a secure
application launcher 518, virtualization applications 526 executed
by a secure application launcher 518, and the like. The secure
native applications 514 may be wrapped by a secure application
wrapper 520. The secure application wrapper 520 may include
integrated policies that are executed on the mobile device 502 when
the secure native application is executed on the device. The secure
application wrapper 520 may include meta-data that points the
secure native application 514 running on the mobile device 502 to
the resources hosted at the enterprise that the secure native
application 514 may require to complete the task requested upon
execution of the secure native application 514. The secure remote
applications 522 executed by a secure application launcher 518 may
be executed within the secure application launcher application 518.
The virtualization applications 526 executed by a secure
application launcher 518 may utilize resources on the mobile device
502, at the enterprise resources 504, and the like. The resources
used on the mobile device 502 by the virtualization applications
526 executed by a secure application launcher 518 may include user
interaction resources, processing resources, and the like. The user
interaction resources may be used to collect and transmit keyboard
input, mouse input, camera input, tactile input, audio input,
visual input, gesture input, and the like. The processing resources
may be used to present a user interface, process data received from
the enterprise resources 504, and the like. The resources used at
the enterprise resources 504 by the virtualization applications 526
executed by a secure application launcher 518 may include user
interface generation resources, processing resources, and the like.
The user interface generation resources may be used to assemble a
user interface, modify a user interface, refresh a user interface,
and the like. The processing resources may be used to create
information, read information, update information, delete
information, and the like. For example, the virtualization
application may record user interactions associated with a GUI and
communicate them to a server application where the server
application may use the user interaction data as an input to the
application operating on the server. In this arrangement, an
enterprise may elect to maintain the application on the server side
as well as data, files, etc. associated with the application. While
an enterprise may elect to "mobilize" some applications in
accordance with the principles herein by securing them for
deployment on the mobile device, this arrangement may also be
elected for certain applications. For example, while some
applications may be secured for use on the mobile device, others
may not be prepared or appropriate for deployment on the mobile
device so the enterprise may elect to provide the mobile user
access to the unprepared applications through virtualization
techniques. As another example, the enterprise may have large
complex applications with large and complex data sets (e.g.
material resource planning applications) where it would be very
difficult, or otherwise undesirable, to customize the application
for the mobile device so the enterprise may elect to provide access
to the application through virtualization techniques. As yet
another example, the enterprise may have an application that
maintains highly secured data (e.g. human resources data, customer
data, engineering data) that may be deemed by the enterprise as too
sensitive for even the secured mobile environment so the enterprise
may elect to use virtualization techniques to permit mobile access
to such applications and data. An enterprise may elect to provide
both fully secured and fully functional applications on the mobile
device as well as a virtualization application to allow access to
applications that are deemed more properly operated on the server
side. In an embodiment, the virtualization application may store
some data, files, etc. on the mobile phone in one of the secure
storage locations. An enterprise, for example, may elect to allow
certain information to be stored on the phone while not permitting
other information.
[0077] In connection with the virtualization application, as
described herein, the mobile device may have a virtualization
application that is designed to present GUIs and then record user
interactions with the GUI. The application may communicate the user
interactions to the server side to be used by the server side
application as user interactions with the application. In response,
the application on the server side may transmit back to the mobile
device a new GUI. For example, the new GUI may be a static page, a
dynamic page, an animation, or the like.
[0078] The applications running on the managed partition may be
stabilized applications. The stabilized applications may be managed
by a device manager 524. The device manager 524 may monitor the
stabilized applications and utilize techniques for detecting and
remedying problems that would result in a destabilized application
if such techniques were not utilized to detect and remedy the
problems.
[0079] The secure applications may access data stored in a secure
data container 528 in the managed partition 510 of the mobile
device. The data secured in the secure data container may be
accessed by the secure wrapped applications 514, applications
executed by a secure application launcher 518, virtualization
applications 526 executed by a secure application launcher 518, and
the like. The data stored in the secure data container 528 may
include files, databases, and the like. The data stored in the
secure data container 528 may include data restricted to a specific
secure application 530, shared among secure applications 532, and
the like. Data restricted to a secure application may include
secure general data 534 and highly secure data 538. Secure general
data may use a strong form of encryption such as AES 128-bit
encryption or the like, while highly secure data 538 may use a very
strong form of encryption such as AES 254-bit encryption. Data
stored in the secure data container 528 may be deleted from the
device upon receipt of a command from the device manager 524. The
secure applications may have a dual-mode option 540. The dual mode
option 540 may present the user with an option to operate the
secured application in an unsecured mode. In an unsecured mode, the
secure applications may access data stored in an unsecured data
container 542 on the unmanaged partition 512 of the mobile device
502. The data stored in an unsecured data container may be personal
data 544. The data stored in an unsecured data container 542 may
also be accessed by unsecured applications 548 that are running on
the unmanaged partition 512 of the mobile device 502. The data
stored in an unsecured data container 542 may remain on the mobile
device 502 when the data stored in the secure data container 528 is
deleted from the mobile device 502. An enterprise may want to
delete from the mobile device selected or all data, files, and/or
applications owned, licensed or controlled by the enterprise
(enterprise data) while leaving or otherwise preserving personal
data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed or controlled by
the user (personal data). This operation may be referred to as a
selective wipe. With the enterprise and personal data arranged in
accordance to the examples described herein, an enterprise may
perform a selective wipe.
[0080] The mobile device may connect to enterprise resources 504
and enterprise services 508 at an enterprise, to the public
Internet 548, and the like. The mobile device may connect to
enterprise resources 504 and enterprise services 508 through
virtual private network connections. The virtual private network
connections may be specific to particular applications 550,
particular devices, particular secured areas on the mobile device,
and the like 552. For example, each of the wrapped applications in
the secured area of the phone may access enterprise resources
through an application specific VPN such that access to the VPN
would be granted based on attributes associated with the
application, possibly in conjunction with user or device attribute
information. The virtual private network connections may carry
Microsoft Exchange traffic, Microsoft Active Directory traffic,
HTTP traffic, HTTPS traffic, application management traffic, and
the like. The virtual private network connections may support and
enable single-sign-on authentication processes 554. The
single-sign-on processes may allow a user to provide a single set
of authentication credentials, which are then verified by an
authentication service 558. The authentication service 558 may then
grant to the user access to multiple enterprise resources 504,
without requiring the user to provide authentication credentials to
each individual enterprise resource 504.
[0081] The virtual private network connections may be established
and managed by an access gateway 560. The access gateway 560 may
include performance enhancement features that manage, accelerate,
and improve the delivery of enterprise resources 504 to the mobile
device 502. The access gateway may also re-route traffic from the
mobile device 502 to the public Internet 548, enabling the mobile
device 502 to access publicly available and unsecured applications
that run on the public Internet 548. The mobile device may connect
to the access gateway via a transport network. The transport
network may be a wired network, wireless network, cloud network,
local area network, metropolitan area network, wide area network,
public network, private network, and the like.
[0082] The enterprise resources 504 may include email servers, file
sharing servers, SaaS applications, Web application servers,
Windows application servers, and the like. Email servers may
include Exchange servers, Lotus Notes servers, and the like. File
sharing servers may include ShareFile servers, and the like. SaaS
applications may include Salesforce, and the like. Windows
application servers may include any application server that is
built to provide applications that are intended to run on a local
Windows operating system, and the like. The enterprise resources
504 may be premise-based resources, cloud based resources, and the
like. The enterprise resources 504 may be accessed by the mobile
device 502 directly or through the access gateway 560. The
enterprise resources 504 may be accessed by the mobile device 502
via a transport network. The transport network may be a wired
network, wireless network, cloud network, local area network,
metropolitan area network, wide area network, public network,
private network, and the like.
[0083] The enterprise services 508 may include authentication
services 558, threat detection services 564, device manager
services 524, file sharing services 568, policy manager services
570, social integration services 572, application controller
services 574, and the like. Authentication services 558 may include
user authentication services, device authentication services,
application authentication services, data authentication services
and the like. Authentication services 558 may use certificates. The
certificates may be stored on the mobile device 502, by the
enterprise resources 504, and the like. The certificates stored on
the mobile device 502 may be stored in an encrypted location on the
mobile device, the certificate may be temporarily stored on the
mobile device 502 for use at the time of authentication, and the
like. Threat detection services 564 may include intrusion detection
services, unauthorized access attempt detection services, and the
like. Unauthorized access attempt detection services may include
unauthorized attempts to access devices, applications, data, and
the like. Device management services 524 may include configuration,
provisioning, security, support, monitoring, reporting, and
decommissioning services. File sharing services 568 may include
file management services, file storage services, file collaboration
services, and the like. Policy manager services 570 may include
device policy manager services, application policy manager
services, data policy manager services, and the like. Social
integration services 572 may include contact integration services,
collaboration services, integration with social networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and the like. Application
controller services 574 may include management services,
provisioning services, deployment services, assignment services,
revocation services, wrapping services, and the like.
[0084] The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may
include an application store 578. The application store 578 may
include unwrapped applications 580, pre-wrapped applications 582,
and the like. Applications may be populated in the application
store 578 from the application controller 574. The application
store 578 may be accessed by the mobile device 502 through the
access gateway 560, through the public Internet 548, or the like.
The application store may be provided with an intuitive and easy to
use User Interface. The application store 578 may provide access to
a software development kit 584. The software development kit 584
may provide a user the capability to secure applications selected
by the user by wrapping the application as described previously in
this description. An application that has been wrapped using the
software development kit 584 may then be made available to the
mobile device 502 by populating it in the application store 578
using the application controller 574.
[0085] The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may
include a management and analytics capability 588. The management
and analytics capability 588 may provide information related to how
resources are used, how often resources are used, and the like.
Resources may include devices, applications, data, and the like.
How resources are used may include which devices download which
applications, which applications access which data, and the like.
How often resources are used may include how often an application
has been downloaded, how many times a specific set of data has been
accessed by an application, and the like.
[0086] FIG. 6 is another illustrative enterprise mobility
management system 600. Some of the components of the mobility
management system 500 described above with reference to FIG. 5 have
been omitted for the sake of simplicity. The architecture of the
system 600 depicted in FIG. 6 is similar in many respects to the
architecture of the system 500 described above with reference to
FIG. 5 and may include additional features not mentioned above.
[0087] In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled
mobile device 602 with a receiver 604, which interacts with a
gateway 606 to cloud-based services (a "cloud gateway") and to
access various enterprise resources 608 and services 609 such as
Exchange, Sharepoint, PKI Resources, Kerberos Resources,
Certificate Issuance service, as shown on the right hand side
above. The cloud gateway 606 may also include access gateway and
application controller functionality. Although not specifically
shown, the mobile device 602 may also interact with an enterprise
application store (a "store front") for the selection and
downloading of applications.
[0088] The receiver 604 acts as the UI (user interface)
intermediary for Windows apps/desktops hosted in an enterprise data
center, which are accessed using a display remoting protocol such
as, e.g., the HDX/ICA protocol available from Citrix. The receiver
604 also supports the installation and management of native
applications on the mobile device 602, such as native iOS or
Android applications. For example, the managed applications 610
(mail, browser, wrapped application) shown in the figure above are
all native applications that execute locally on the device. The
receiver 604 and the mobile application management protocol of this
architecture act to provide policy driven management capabilities
and features such as connectivity and SSO (single sign on) to
enterprise resources/services 608. One example of a mobile
application management protocol is the MDX (mobile experience
technology) protocol available from Citrix. The receiver 604
handles primary user authentication to the enterprise, normally to
an access gateway (AG) with SSO to other cloud gateway components.
The receiver 604 obtains policies from the cloud gateway 606 to
control the behavior of the managed applications 610 on the mobile
device 602.
[0089] The secure inter-process communication (IPC) links 612
between the native applications 610 and receiver 604 represent a
management channel, which allows the receiver to supply policies to
be enforced by the management framework 614 "wrapping" each
application. The management framework 614 may be, for example, the
MDX framework available from Citrix. The IPC link 612 also allows
receiver 604 to supply credential and authentication information
that enables connectivity and SSO to enterprise resources 608.
Finally the IPC link 612 allows the management framework 614 to
invoke user interface functions implemented by receiver 604, such
as online and offline authentication.
[0090] Communications between the receiver 604 and cloud gateway
606 are essentially an extension of the management channel from the
management framework 614 wrapping each native managed application
610. The management framework 614 requests policy information from
receiver 604, which in turn requests it from cloud gateway 606. The
management framework 614 requests authentication, and receiver 604
logs into the gateway services part of the cloud gateway 606, which
may be, e.g., a NetScaler Access Gateway available from Citrix. The
receiver 604 may also call supporting services on the cloud gateway
606, which may produce input material to derive encryption keys for
the local data vaults 616, or provide client certificates which may
enable direct authentication to PKI protected resources, as more
fully explained below.
[0091] In more detail, the management framework 614 "wraps" each
managed application 610. This may be incorporated via an explicit
build step, or via a post-build processing step. The management
framework 614 may "pair" with receiver 604 on first launch of an
application 610 to initialize the secure IPC link 612 and obtain
the policy for that application. The management framework 614 may
enforce relevant portions of the policy that apply locally, such as
the receiver login dependencies and some of the containment
policies that restrict how local OS services may be used, or how
they may interact with the application 610.
[0092] The management framework 614 may use services provided by
receiver 604 over the secure IPC link 612 to facilitate
authentication and internal network access. Key management for the
private and shared data vaults 616 (containers) may be also managed
by appropriate interactions between the managed applications 610
and receiver 604. Vaults 616 may be available only after online
authentication, or may be made available after offline
authentication if allowed by policy. First use of vaults 616 may
require online authentication, and offline access may be limited to
at most the policy refresh period before online authentication is
again required.
[0093] Network access to internal resources may occur directly from
individual managed applications 610 through the access gateway
functionality of the cloud gateway 606. The management framework
614 is responsible for orchestrating the network access on behalf
of each application 610. The receiver 604 may facilitate these
network connections by providing suitable time limited secondary
credentials obtained following online authentication. Multiple
modes of network connection may be used, such as reverse web proxy
connections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 618.
[0094] The mail and browser managed applications 610 have special
status and may make use of facilities that might not be generally
available to arbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the mail
application may use a special background network access mechanism
that allows it to access a mail server (e.g., Exchange) over an
extended period of time without requiring a full AG logon. The
browser application may use multiple private data vaults to
segregate different kinds of data.
[0095] This architecture supports the incorporation of various
other security features. For example, the cloud gateway 606
(including its gateway services) in some cases may not need to
validate directory service passwords, e.g., Active Directory (AD)
passwords. It can be left to the discretion of an enterprise
whether directory service password is used as an authentication
factor for some users in some situations. Different authentication
methods may be used if a user is online or offline (e.g., connected
or not connected to a network).
[0096] Step up authentication is a feature wherein the cloud
gateway 606 may identify managed native applications 610 that are
allowed to have access to highly classified data requiring strong
authentication, and ensure that access to these applications is
only permitted after performing appropriate authentication, even if
this means a re-authentication is required by the user after a
prior weaker level of login.
[0097] Another security feature of this solution is the encryption
of the data vaults 616 (containers) on the mobile device 602. The
vaults 616 may be encrypted so that all on-device data including
files, databases, and configurations are protected. For on-line
vaults, the keys may be stored on the server (e.g., the cloud
gateway), and for off-line vaults, a local copy of the keys may be
protected by a user password. When data is stored locally on the
device 602 in the secure container 616, it is preferred that a
minimum of AES 256 encryption algorithm be utilized.
[0098] Other secure container features may also be implemented. For
example, a logging feature may be included, wherein all security
events happening inside an application 610 are logged and reported
to the backend. Data wiping may be supported, such as if the
application 610 detects tampering, associated encryption keys may
be written over with random data, leaving no hint on the file
system that user data was destroyed. Screenshot protection is
another feature, where an application may prevent any data from
being stored in screenshots. For example, the key window's hidden
property may be set to YES. This may cause whatever content is
currently displayed on the screen to be hidden, resulting in a
blank screenshot where any content would normally reside.
[0099] Local data transfer may be prevented, such as by preventing
any data from being locally transferred outside the application
container, e.g., by copying it or sending it to an external
application. A keyboard cache feature may operate to disable the
autocorrect functionality for sensitive text fields. SSL
certificate validation may be operable so the application
specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead of it
being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation feature
may be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the device is
generated using a passphrase supplied by the user (if offline
access is required). It may be XORed with another key randomly
generated and stored on the server side if offline access is not
required. Key Derivation functions may operate such that keys
generated from the user password use KDFs (key derivation
functions, notably PBKDF2) rather than creating a cryptographic
hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptible to brute force or
dictionary attacks.
[0100] Further, one or more initialization vectors may be used in
encryption methods. An initialization vector may cause multiple
copies of the same encrypted data to yield different cipher text
output, preventing both replay and cryptanalytic attacks. This may
also prevent an attacker from decrypting any data even with a
stolen encryption key if the specific initialization vector used to
encrypt the data is not known. Further, authentication then
decryption may be used, wherein application data is decrypted only
after the user has authenticated within the application. Another
feature may relate to sensitive data in memory, which may be kept
in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. For example,
login credentials may be wiped from memory after login, and
encryption keys and other data inside objective-C instance
variables are not stored, as they may be easily referenced.
Instead, memory may be manually allocated for these.
[0101] An inactivity timeout may be implemented, wherein after a
policy-defined period of inactivity, a user session is
terminated.
[0102] Data leakage from the management framework 614 may be
prevented in other ways. For example, when an application 610 is
put in the background, the memory may be cleared after a
predetermined (configurable) time period. When backgrounded, a
snapshot may be taken of the last displayed screen of the
application to fasten the foregrounding process. The screenshot may
contain confidential data and hence should be cleared.
[0103] Another security feature relates to the use of an OTP (one
time password) 620 without the use of directory service 622
password for access to one or more applications. In some cases,
some users do not know (or are not permitted to know) their
directory service password, so these users may authenticate using
an OTP 620 such as by using a hardware OTP system like SecurID
(OTPs may be provided by different vendors also, such as Entrust or
Gemalto). In some cases, after a user authenticates with a user ID,
a text is sent to the user with an OTP 620. In some cases, this may
be implemented only for online use, with a prompt being a single
field.
[0104] An offline password may be implemented for offline
authentication for those applications 610 for which offline use is
permitted via enterprise policy. For example, an enterprise may
want the store front to be accessed in this manner. In this case,
the receiver 604 may require the user to set a custom offline
password and the directory service password is not used. Cloud
gateway 606 may provide policies to control and enforce password
standards with respect to the minimum length, character class
composition, and age of passwords, such as described by the
standard Windows Server password complexity requirements, although
these requirements may be modified.
[0105] Another feature relates to the enablement of a client side
certificate for certain applications 610 as secondary credentials
(for the purpose of accessing PKI protected web resources via the
management framework micro VPN feature). For example, an email
application may utilize such a certificate. In this case,
certificate-based authentication using a mobile data
synchronization protocol (e.g., the protocol employed by
ActiveSync) may be supported, wherein a certificate from the
receiver 604 may be retrieved by the cloud gateway 606 and used in
a keychain. Each managed application may have one associated client
certificate, identified by a label that is defined in the cloud
gateway.
[0106] The cloud gateway 606 may interact with an enterprise
special purpose web service to support the issuance of client
certificates to allow relevant managed applications to authenticate
to internal PKI protected resources.
[0107] The receiver 604 and the management framework 614 may be
enhanced to support obtaining and using client certificates for
authentication to internal PKI protected network resources. More
than one certificate may be supported, such as to match various
levels of security and/or separation requirements. The certificates
may be used by the mail and browser managed applications, and
ultimately by arbitrary wrapped applications (provided those
applications use web service style communication patterns where it
is reasonable for the management framework to mediate https
requests).
[0108] Management framework client certificate support on iOS may
rely on importing a PKCS 12 BLOB (Binary Large Object) into the iOS
keychain in each managed application for each period of use.
Management framework client certificate support may use a HTTPS
implementation with private in-memory key storage. The client
certificate may not be present in the iOS keychain and may not be
persisted except potentially in "online-only" data value that is
strongly protected.
[0109] Mutual SSL may also be implemented to provide additional
security by requiring that a mobile device 602 is authenticated to
the enterprise, and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for
authentication to cloud gateway 606 may also be implemented.
[0110] Both limited and full Kerberos support may be additional
features. The full support feature relates to an ability to do full
Kerberos login to directory service 622, using a directory service
password or trusted client certificate, and obtain Kerberos service
tickets to respond to HTTP Negotiate authentication challenges. The
limited support feature relates to constrained delegation in AFEE,
where AFEE supports invoking Kerberos protocol transition so it can
obtain and use Kerberos service tickets (subject to constrained
delegation) in response to HTTP Negotiate authentication
challenges. This mechanism works in reverse web proxy (aka CVPN)
mode, and when http (but not https) connections are proxied in VPN
and MicroVPN mode.
[0111] Another feature relates to application container locking and
wiping, which may automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting
detections, and occur as a pushed command from administration
console, and may include a remote wipe functionality even when an
application 610 is not running.
[0112] A multi-site architecture or configuration of the store
front and application controller may be supported that allows users
to be service from one of several different locations in case of
failure.
[0113] In some cases, managed applications 610 may be allowed to
access a certificate and private key via an API (example OpenSSL).
Trusted managed applications 610 of an enterprise may be allowed to
perform specific Public Key operations with an application's client
certificate and private key. Various use cases may be identified
and treated accordingly, such as when an application behaves like a
browser and no certificate access is required, when an application
reads a certificate for "who am I," when an application uses the
certificate to build a secure session token, and when an
application uses private keys for digital signing of important data
(e.g. transaction log) or for temporary data encryption.
[0114] Identification of Managed Mobile Applications
[0115] In FIG. 7, an illustrative mobile device management system
700 is shown. The system 700 may be similar in many respects to the
systems 500 and 600 described above with reference to FIG. 5 and
FIG. 6 respectively. The system 700 may also omit certain
components described above for the sake of simplicity and may
include additional features not mentioned above.
[0116] The mobile device management system 700 may include an
enterprise system 702 in signal communication with one or more
mobile devices 704 via a network 706. The enterprise system may
include an enterprise application server 708, an access gateway
710, and one or more computing resources such as enterprise
resources 712.
[0117] The enterprise application server 708 may be similar in many
respects to the application store 578 discussed above with
reference to FIG. 5. The enterprise application server 708 may
provide access to mobile applications 714 available for
installation at a mobile device, e.g., the mobile device 704. As
noted above, the mobile applications 714 may include both secured
and unsecured mobile applications. Accordingly, the mobile
applications 714 may correspond to the unwrapped applications 180
and the pre-wrapped applications 182 described above with reference
to FIG. 5. As also noted above, a secured mobile application may be
wrapped with a secure application wrapper that enables the
management of and control over the execution of the secured mobile
application. In this regard, a secured mobile application, wrapped
mobile application, or enrolled mobile application may also be
referred to as a managed mobile application.
[0118] The enterprise application server 708 may also provide
access to application policies 716 and application metadata 718
respectively associated with the mobile applications 714. An
application policy 716 may represent one of the mechanisms through
which management of a mobile application is achieved. As noted
above, an application policy 716 may define rights and entitlements
with respect to which users may utilize a managed mobile
application, which computing resources a managed mobile application
may access, the features available at a managed mobile application
when executing at a mobile device, and combinations of the
same.
[0119] Application metadata 718 refers to information that
describes and/or identifies a mobile application. Application
metadata 718 may be generated during the build process of a new
mobile application and made available via the enterprise
application server 708 when the new mobile application is published
to the enterprise application server Application metadata 718 may
include, for example, the name of the mobile application, the size
of the mobile application, a unique identifier for the mobile
application, the version of the mobile application, and so forth.
As discussed further below application metadata 718 may also
include information useful to validate the identity of a mobile
application.
[0120] The access gateway 710 may facilitate access to the
enterprise resources 712 from a managed mobile application
operating at a mobile device, e.g., the mobile device 704. The
access gateway 710 may be similar in many respects to the access
gateway 160 and the cloud gateway 606 described above with
reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively. The enterprise
resources 712 may correspond to the enterprise resources 504 and
608 as well as the enterprise services 508 and 609 as also
described above with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively.
Once validated, authenticated, and authorized, mobile applications
may access the enterprise resources 712 via the access gateway 710
as described above.
[0121] Both managed mobile applications 720 as well as unmanaged
mobile applications 722 may reside at the mobile device 704. An
access manager application 724 may also reside at the mobile device
704 and manage execution of the managed mobile applications 720 on
the mobile device. A mobile device that includes both managed and
unmanaged mobile applications may be referred to as an unmanaged
mobile device as an enterprise may only be equipped to exercise
control over the managed mobile applications at that mobile device
and may not be equipped to exercise control over other aspects of
the mobile device, e.g., the unmanaged applications. Because the
mobile device 704 includes a managed mobile application 720 and
unmanaged mobile applications 722, the mobile device shown by way
of example in FIG. 7 may be referred to as an unmanaged mobile
device and may represent the personal mobile device of an
individual.
[0122] The access manager application 724 ("access manager") may be
similar in many respects to the Receiver 604 discussed above with
reference to FIG. 6. As discussed further below, the access manager
724 may manage user authentication, validation of mobile
application identity, and enforcement of mobile application
policies. A user may access the enterprise application server 708
(e.g., via a web browser) to initially download and install the
access manager 724 at the mobile device 704. As noted above, the
access manager 724 may also serve as the interface to the
enterprise application server 708 enabling a user to browse,
download, and install the mobile applications available from the
enterprise system 702.
[0123] When the user downloads a managed mobile application 720 to
the mobile device 704, the access manager 724 may also download the
application metadata 718 associated with the managed mobile
application 720 as well as any application policies 716 associated
with the managed mobile application. As noted above, the access
manager 724 may receive the application metadata 718 for a mobile
application 720 from the enterprise application server 708. In some
example implementations, the access manager 724 may store the
application metadata 718 and the application policies 716 at a
secure location of the mobile device 704, e.g., the secure data
container 528 of FIG. 5 and/or the secure data vaults 616 of FIG.
6.
[0124] The access manager 724 may also maintain a list 726 of
managed mobile applications currently installed at the mobile
device 704 and under management of the access manager. Upon
installation of a new managed mobile application, the access
manager 724 may add a new entry to the managed mobile application
list 726. The new entry in the list 726 may correspond to the new
managed mobile application installed at the mobile device 704.
[0125] As noted above, the access manager 724 may be configured to
validate the identity of the managed mobile application 720, e.g.,
to ensure that the managed mobile application has accurately
identified itself and/or to ensure that the managed mobile
application has not been altered after installation at the mobile
device 704. The access manager may rely on identification
information 728 included in the application metadata 718 to
validate the identity of the managed mobile application 720. In
some example embodiments, the access manager 724 may rely on the
mobile platform on which the managed mobile application 720 is
operating in order to validate the identity of the managed mobile
application. The operating system of the mobile platform may
produce identification information that the access manager 724 may
compare to stored identification information for the managed mobile
application. If the stored identification information matches the
identification information received from the operating system, then
the access manager 724 may identify the managed mobile application
720 as a trusted mobile application and grant access to the
enterprise resources 712. If the stored identification information
for the managed mobile application does not match the
identification information received from the operating system, then
the access manager 724 may identify the managed mobile application
720 as a suspicious or untrustworthy mobile application and deny
access to the enterprise resources 712. As noted above, the access
manager 724 may also grant or deny access to local computing
resources at the mobile device 704 itself. Local computing
resources at the mobile device 704 may include, for example, a
camera or other recording hardware; location services such as GPS,
network services such as cellular or internet services,
communication services such as Bluetooth, interface commands such
as the cut-and-paste and screenshot features.
[0126] In other example embodiments, the access manager 724 may
challenge the managed mobile application 720 to identify itself.
The access manager 724 may issue a challenge request to the managed
mobile application 720 and determine an expected challenge
response. The expected challenge response is a response that is
expected to be received from a managed mobile application that has
accurately identified itself and that has not been altered. As
explained further below, only a mobile application that has
accurately identified itself and has not been altered may be able
to produce the expected challenged response. If the response
received from the managed mobile application 720 matches the
expected response, then the access manager 724 may identify the
managed mobile application 720 as a trusted mobile application.
Having identified the managed mobile application 720 as a trusted
mobile application, the access manager may provide the managed
mobile application with the credentials necessary to access the
enterprise resources 712. If the response received from the managed
mobile application 720 does not match the expected response, then
the access manager may identify the managed mobile application as a
suspicious or untrustworthy mobile application and deny access to
the enterprise resources 712. Again, the access manager 724 may
grant or deny access to local computing resources at the mobile
device 704 depending on whether the response received from the
managed mobile application 720 matches the expected response.
[0127] The expected response may be based, at least in part, on the
identification information 728 included in the application metadata
718 that is associated with the managed mobile application 720. The
identification information may be created when the mobile
application itself is created. The identification information may
be, for example, an original digital certificate or original
information that may be used to generate an application signature.
The expected response may thus include or otherwise correspond to
the identification information 728. As explained further below, a
mobile application that submits a false identity or a mobile
application that has been subsequently altered is unable to
generate the expected response and thus unable to gain access to
the computing resources.
[0128] Various approaches may be selectively employed to validate
the identity of a managed mobile application. The particular
approach ultimately implemented may depend on the mobile platform
and operating system of the mobile device 704. For example, the
Android operating system available from Google Inc. of Mountain
View, Calif. may include mechanisms through which the access
manager may strongly identify a mobile application requesting
access to computing resources. Those skilled in the art will
recognize that the Android operating system may include built-in
mechanisms for requesting the signing certificate of an
application, which the access manager 724 may utilize to validate
the identity of a managed mobile application requesting access to
the computing resources such as enterprise resources 712. It will
also be recognized that the Android operating system may prevent an
application from being altered after installation and may prevent a
mobile application from using a signing certificate created for a
different mobile application. In this way, the access manager 724
may rely on the signing certificates provided by the operating
system of the mobile platform in order to validate the identity of
a managed mobile application. Validation of application identity
using signing certificates will be discussed in further detail
below.
[0129] Other operating systems, however, may not include built-in
mechanisms the access manager 724 may rely on to validate the
identity of a managed mobile application requesting access to the
computing resources. For example, the iOS operating system
available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. may not include
mechanisms to request a signing certificate for the managed mobile
application. In addition, the methods available for inter-process
communication in iOS, may not include mechanisms to validate the
identity of the mobile applications at each end of the
communication. Mobile applications operating on the iOS platform
may exchange communications, for example, via a copy-and-paste
procedure, via an agreed to URL scheme, or via the network.
[0130] In some example implementations, the access manager 724 and
the managed mobile application 720 may be configured to communicate
via the network, e.g., via the transmission control protocol (TCP).
In this example, the access manager 724 may open a TCP socket and
wait to receive a connection request from the managed mobile
application 720. It will be appreciated, however, that TCP does not
include a mechanism to identify the managed mobile application
requesting the connection to the access manager 724. Because the
iOS platform may not include a mechanism to obtain a signing
certificate for the mobile application making the request,
additional steps may be employed to validate the identity of the
requesting mobile application. Instead of relying on a signing
certificate, the access manager 724 in this example, may rely, at
least in part, on identification information 732 embedded in and/or
derived from the managed mobile application 720 as set forth
below.
[0131] The wrapping process discussed above may configure a mobile
application to operate as a managed mobile application. In this
regard, the wrapping process may include (e.g., insert, embed,
wrap, etc.) a management framework 730 in the managed mobile
application 720. The management framework 730 may correspond to the
secure application wrapper 120 and the management framework 614
discussed above with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively.
The management framework 730 enables the access manager 724 to
manage the operation of the mobile application 720 as discussed
above with reference to FIG. 6.
[0132] The managed mobile application 720 may also employ the
management framework 730 to identify itself to the access manager
724. In particular, the management framework 730 may generate the
response to the challenge posed by the access manager 724 during
the identity validation procedure.
[0133] In some example implementations, the management framework
730 of the managed mobile application 720 may be configured to
generate an application signature. The management framework 730 may
also be configured to provide a challenge response that is based,
at least in part, on this application signature. The application
signature may in turn be based on identification information 732
embedded in and/or derived from the managed mobile application 720.
Stated differently, the management framework 730 may generate an
application signature based on static information and dynamic
information associated with the managed mobile application 720.
[0134] The static information may be secret information that is
embedded into the managed mobile application 720 during the
wrapping process described above. For example, the secret
information may include one or more identification tokens 734
embedded into the application during the wrapping process. The
identification tokens 734 may be, e.g., randomized alphanumeric
strings embedded into the binary of the managed mobile application
720. The management framework 730 may be configured to extract the
identification tokens 734 when constructing the application
signature in order to respond to the challenge received from the
access manager 724.
[0135] The dynamic information may be identification tokens derived
from the managed mobile application 720. For example, the derived
identification tokens may be hash values obtained using selective
hash functions on the various components of the mobile application
bundle, e.g., the mobile application binary, application icon,
application frameworks, and the like. The access manager 724 may
derive this dynamic identification information in an ad hoc fashion
during the identity validation procedure. One or more selective
hash functions may be used to generate one or more selective hash
values that represent the derived identification tokens. The access
manager may utilize the management framework 730 to help derive the
dynamic identification information from the managed mobile
application 720 as needed.
[0136] The management framework 730 may also be configured to
construct the application signature used in the response to the
challenge received from the access manager 724. The application
signature may comprise a combination of the static information
extracted from the managed mobile application 720 as well as the
dynamic information derived from the managed mobile application.
The management framework 730 may further be configured to arrange
the static information and the dynamic information within the
application signature in a particular way. Thus, strong
identification of the managed mobile application 720 may be
achieved through the static information embedded in the managed
mobile application, the dynamic information derived from the mobile
application, and the arrangement of the static and dynamic
information within the application signature.
[0137] As noted above, the access manager 724 may be configured to
generate an expected response when challenging the managed mobile
application 720. Accordingly, the access manager 724 may likewise
be configured to construct an expected application signature. The
access manager 724 may construct the expected application signature
based on the identification information 728 included in the
application metadata 718 for the managed mobile application 720.
The access manager may also be configured to dynamically derive the
dynamic information from the managed mobile application 720.
Furthermore, the access manager 724 may likewise be configured to
arrange the static and dynamic information within the expected
application signature in a particular way.
[0138] In order to guard against replay attacks, the access manager
724 may provide a nonce (e.g., an arbitrary and random number) to
the managed mobile application 720 for use in the response to the
challenge. The access manager 724 may hash the nonce with the
expected application signature to obtain an expected hash value.
Similarly, the management framework 730 of the managed mobile
application may hash the application signature with the received
nonce to obtain a response hash value. In response to the challenge
from the access manager 724, the managed mobile application 720 may
thus provide the access manager with the computed hash value
obtained from the application signature and the nonce received from
the access manager. The access manager may thus compare the
expected hash value to the received hash value. The access manager
724 may thus identify the managed mobile application 720 as a
trusted mobile application when the expected hash value matches the
received hash value.
[0139] With reference to FIG. 8 a block diagram of an illustrative
application signature and challenge response is shown. As noted
above, a managed mobile application 800 may generate an application
signature 802 in response to a challenge from an access manager
804. The application signature 802 may include identification
tokens 806 embedded in the managed mobile application 800 as well
as identification tokens 808 derived from the managed mobile
application. As seen in FIG. 8, the managed mobile application 800
may arrange the embedded identification tokens 806 and the derived
identification tokens 808 in a particular way within the
application signature 802. As an example, the managed mobile
application 800 may concatenate the embedded identification tokens
806 and the derived identification tokens 808 in a particular order
to construct the application signature. In another example, the
managed mobile application 800 may concatenate portions of the
embedded identification tokens 806 and portions of the derived
identification tokens 808 to construct the application signature.
It will be appreciated that various approaches to constructing the
application signature may be selectively employed. As also noted
above, the access manager 804 may provide a nonce 810 to the
managed mobile application 800. The managed mobile application 800
may employ a hash function 812 to generate a hash value 814 based
on the application signature 802 and the nonce 810. The managed
mobile application 800 may provide the hash value 814 to the access
manager 802 in the response 816 to the challenge received.
[0140] To validate the identity of the managed mobile application
800, the access manager 804 may construct an expected application
signature 818 based on the identification tokens 820 stored with
the application metadata 822 and identification tokens 808 derived
from the managed mobile application. The access manager 804 may
also employ the hash function 812 to generate an expected hash
value 824 based on the identification tokens 820 from the
application metadata 822 and the nonce 810. In response to the
challenge, the access manager 804 may receive the challenge
response 816 and compare the hash value 814 in the challenge
response with the expected hash value 824.
[0141] With the benefit of the present disclosure, it will be
appreciated that only an unaltered mobile application received from
the enterprise application server (708 in FIG. 7) may generate the
expected hash value 824. It will also be appreciated that the
expected application signature 818 may not be stored persistently
at the mobile device, but rather reconstructed as needed to verify
the identity of the mobile application 800 requesting access to
computing resources. The approach set forth above thus represents a
mechanism to strongly identify a mobile application in order to
determine whether to grant or deny the mobile application access to
computing resources.
[0142] FIGS. 9-14 depict example methods steps related to aspects
of validating the identity of a managed mobile application,
enforcing application policies once validated, and controlling
operation of the managed mobile applications.
[0143] In FIG. 9, a flowchart 900 of example method steps for
managing a mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device is
shown. An enterprise may create a managed mobile application
configured to operate at a mobile device (e.g., an unmanaged mobile
device) and configured to access computing resources from the
mobile device (block 902). The enterprise may also configure the
managed mobile application to be managed by an access manager
application at the mobile device. As noted above, the enterprise
may wrap or otherwise include a management framework (e.g., the MDX
framework) that enables the access manager to validate the identity
of the managed mobile application and control operation of the
managed mobile application.
[0144] Upon creation of the managed mobile application, the
enterprise may also create identification information associated
with the managed mobile application (block 904). The identification
information may be, for example, a signed application certificate
and/or application metadata that includes identification tokens.
The identification tokens may be embedded into the managed mobile
application (e.g., into the application binary) in some example
implementations. A user may download and install the access manager
at a mobile device (block 906). The access manager may provide the
user with an interface from which to browse the enterprise
application server (e.g., the enterprise application store) and
select various managed mobile applications to download to the
mobile device. The access manager may require the user to provide
access credentials in order to logon to the enterprise application
server. The user may be associated with a user profile, and the
user profile may be associated with various rights and
entitlements. In this way, the managed mobile applications
presented to the user as available to download depend upon the
rights and entitlements assigned to the user, e.g., the enterprise
application server may only present managed mobile applications
that the user is entitled to use.
[0145] Having selected a managed mobile application, the user may
download the mobile application via the access managed and install
the mobile application at the mobile device (block 908). The
enterprise application server may also provide the identification
information associated with the mobile application as well as an
access policy associated with the mobile application. Accordingly,
when the user downloads and installs a managed mobile application,
the access manager may also download and store the identification
information (block 910) and the application policy (block 912)
associated with the mobile application.
[0146] Having installed the mobile application at the mobile
device, the user may utilize the mobile application to access a
computing resource. When the mobile application seeks to access the
computing resource, the mobile application may check-in with the
access manager and request access to the resource (block 914). Upon
receipt of the request to access the computing resource, the access
manager may retrieve the identification information received from
the enterprise application server and stored at the mobile device
(block 916). The access manager may also receive identification
information from the mobile operating system, e.g., a signed
application certification, or from the mobile application itself,
e.g., a hash value based, at least in part, on an application
signature (block 918).
[0147] The access manager may then compare the stored
identification information to the received identification
information (block 920). If the received identification information
matches the stored identification information (block 922:Y), then
the access manager may determine that the mobile application is
valid and identify the mobile application as a trusted mobile
application. Accordingly, the access manager may permit the managed
mobile application to access the computing resource (block 924).
The access manager may, for example, provide the mobile application
with the access credentials, certificates, keys, and the like
necessary to establish a connection with and access an enterprise
resource. In some example implementations, the application policy
associated with the mobile application may determine the manner in
which the mobile application accesses and uses the computing
resource. If the received identification information does not match
the stored identification information (block 924:N), then the
access manager may determine that the mobile application is invalid
and not identify the mobile application as a trust mobile
application and thus prevent the mobile application from accessing
the computing resource (block 926).
[0148] In FIG. 10 is a flowchart 1000 of example method steps for
preparing a managed mobile application for managed operation at an
unmanaged mobile device. As noted above, some mobile operating
systems may not provide built-in mechanisms the access manager may
employ to validate the identity of the mobile application.
Accordingly, the mobile application may be configured such that it
can strongly identify itself. The enterprise may use a toolkit to
prepare a mobile application as a managed mobile application (block
1002). The toolkit may add functionality (e.g., the MDX framework)
that transforms the mobile application into a managed mobile
application (block 1004). The toolkit may also generate and embed
identification tokens (e.g., randomized strings) into the managed
mobile application (block 1006). The functionality added to the
managed mobile application may include functionality that enables
the managed mobile application to extract, arrange, and combine the
embedded identification tokens in order to construct an application
signature. The functionality added to the managed mobile
application may also include functionality that enables the managed
mobile application to derive identification tokens dynamically as
well as to arrange and combine the derived identification tokens
with the embedded identification tokens when constructing the
application signature. Furthermore, the functionality added to the
managed mobile application may additionally include functionality
that enables the managed mobile application to generate a hash
value based, at least in part, on the application signature.
[0149] The toolkit may also generate application metadata for the
managed mobile application that includes the identification tokens
embedded into the mobile application (block 1008). The enterprise
may then publish the managed mobile application to the enterprise
application server along with the application metadata and any
application policies associated with the mobile application (block
1010). The enterprise application server may receive a request from
a mobile device to download a selected mobile application (block
1012). If the access manager has not yet been installed at the
mobile device (block 1014:N), then the enterprise application
server may first download the access manager application to the
mobile device (block 1016). Once the access manager is installed at
the mobile application (block 1014:Y), the enterprise application
server may download the selected mobile application to the mobile
device in response to receipt of the request (1018). As noted
above, the enterprise application server may also download to the
mobile device the application metadata associated with the selected
mobile application for storage at the mobile device. The access
manager may have access to the application metadata thereby
enabling the access manager to validate the identity of the mobile
application associated with the application metadata.
[0150] In FIG. 11, a flowchart 1100 of example method steps for
initializing a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device is shown. When the mobile device is first activated and
initialized (block 1102), the access manager application may be one
of the first mobile applications launched (block 1104). The access
manager may, for example, launch automatically as part of the
startup process of the mobile device and/or in response to user
input received at the mobile device. When the access manager
application launches, the access manager may request access
credentials (e.g., a username and password) from the user (block
1106). The access manager may then provide the access credentials
to the enterprise server for authentication (block 1108). If the
enterprise server does not authenticate the user (block 1110:N),
then the access manager may prevent any managed mobile applications
at the mobile device from accessing the computing resources (block
1112). For example, the access manager may refrain from providing
mobile applications the access credentials necessary to establish
connections with the enterprise resources.
[0151] If the enterprise server does authenticate the user (block
1110:Y), then the enterprise server may validate the identity of
the access manager itself (block 1114) in order to ensure that the
access manager application has not been altered. The enterprise
server may validate the identity of the access manager in the same
manner as the managed mobile application. As an example, a signing
certificate used to sign the access manager may be employed to
validate the access manager application. For example, the
enterprise system may validate the managed mobile application. If
the access manager is not validated (block 1116:N), then the
management framework of the managed mobile applications may treat
the access manager as missing from the mobile device, and the
managed mobile applications may thus be prevented from accessing
the computing resources (block 1112).
[0152] If the enterprise server does validate the identity of the
access manager application (block 1116:Y), then a managed mobile
application may be initiated (block 1118). Upon launch as well as
during operation, the mobile application may check-in with the
access manager so that the access manager may validate the identity
of the managed mobile application (block 1120). If the access
manager cannot validate the identity of the managed mobile
application (block 1122:N), then the access manager may prevent the
managed mobile application from accessing the computing resources
(block 1124). If the access manager successfully validates the
identity of the managed mobile application (block 1122:Y), then the
access manager may identify the managed mobile application as a
trusted mobile application (block 1126). If the managed mobile
application has just launched at the mobile device, then the access
manager may update the list of mobile applications managed by the
access manager to include the trusted mobile application (block
1128). Having validated the identity of the managed mobile
application, the access manager may also permit the trusted mobile
application to access the computing resources (block 1130).
[0153] In FIG. 12, is a flowchart 1200 of example method steps for
validating a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device having a first type of mobile operating system is shown. The
mobile operating system, in this example, may not include built-in
mechanisms the access manager may utilize to validate the identity
of a mobile application. The access manager may receive a request
from a managed mobile application seeking to access a computing
resource (block 1202). Upon receipt of the request, the access
manager may initiate a handshake with the managed mobile
application to start the identity validation process (block 1204).
The managed mobile application may identify itself to the access
manager, e.g., by providing a unique application identifier to the
access manager (block 1206). In turn, the access manager may
utilize the application identifier to retrieve the application
metadata associated with the mobile application (block 1208). The
access manager may also generate a nonce and provide the nonce to
the mobile application (block 1210).
[0154] The access manager and the managed mobile application may
then begin the process of constructing the application signature
and corresponding hash value used to validate the identity of the
mobile application and determine whether the mobile application is
a trusted mobile application. The mobile application may extract
the embedded identification tokens (block 1212) and derive the
derived identification tokens (block 1214) used to construct the
application signature. The mobile application may then arrange and
combine the embedded identification tokens extracted and the
derived identification tokens to obtain the application signature
(block 1216). The mobile application may then compute a hash value
using the application signature and the nonce received from the
access manager (block 1218).
[0155] Having provided the nonce to the mobile application, the
access manager may retrieve the embedded identification tokens from
the application metadata associated with the mobile application
(block 1220). The access manager may similarly derive the derived
identification tokens from the mobile application (block 1222) used
to construct the expected application signature. The access manager
may then arrange and combine the embedded identification tokens
retrieved from the application metadata and the derived
identification tokens to obtain the expected application signature
(block 1224). The access manager may then compute an expected hash
value using the expected application signature and the nonce
provided to the mobile application (block 1226).
[0156] It will be appreciated that the hash value computed by the
access manager should be the same as the hash value computed by the
mobile application if the embedded identification tokens retrieved
from the application metadata are the same as the embedded
identification tokens extracted from the mobile application; if the
identification tokens derived by the access manager are the same as
the identification tokens derived by the mobile; if the expected
application signature constructed by the access manager is the same
as the application signature constructed by the mobile application;
and if the mobile application uses the nonce provided by the access
manager to compute the hash value. Accordingly, the mobile
application may provide the hash value in a response to the access
manager (block 1228), and the access manager may compare the
expected hash value to the value received from the mobile
application (block 1230). If the expected hash value does not match
the received hash value (block 1232:N), then the access manager may
determine that the mobile application has falsely identified
itself, has been altered after installation at the mobile device,
and so forth. As a result, the access manager may deny the mobile
application access to the computing resources (block 1234). If the
expected hash value matches the received hash value (block 1232:Y),
then the access manager may identify the mobile application as a
trusted mobile application and permit the trusted mobile
application to access the computing resources (block 1236).
[0157] In FIG. 13, a flowchart 1300 of example method steps for
validating a managed mobile application at an unmanaged mobile
device having a second type of mobile operating system is shown.
The mobile operating system, in this example, may include built-in
mechanisms the access manager may utilize to validate the identity
of a mobile application. The access manager may receive a request
from the managed mobile application to access a computing resource
(block 1302). The access manager may request from the mobile
operating system a unique application identifier for the mobile
application (block 1304) and receive the application identifier in
response (block 1306).
[0158] Based on the application identifier for the mobile
application, the access manager may query the list of managed
mobile applications (1308). If the list of managed mobile
applications does not include the mobile application requesting
access to the computing resource (block 1310:N), then the access
manager may deny the mobile application access to the resource
(block 1312). If, however, the list of managed mobile applications
does include the mobile application requesting access to the
computing resource (block 1310:Y), the access manager may then
request from the mobile operating system the application
certificate for mobile application (block 1314).
[0159] As noted above, the enterprise application server may
provide application certificates for the mobile applications
installed at mobile devices. The application certificates may be
stored at a secure storage location at the mobile device that is
accessible by the access manager. Accordingly, the access manager
may receive the requested application certificate from the mobile
operating system (block 1316) and retrieve the stored application
certificate provided by the enterprise application server (block
1318). In some example implementations, the access manager may
compute respective hash values for each of the certificates (step
1320), e.g., using the SHA-1 hash function. The access manager may
compare the hash value of the stored certificate to the hash value
of the certificate received from the mobile operating system.
(block 1322). If the hash values match (block 1324:Y), then the
access manager may determine that the mobile application is a
trusted mobile application and permit the mobile application to
access the computing resources (block 1326). If the hash values do
not match (block 1324:N), then the access manager may determine
that the mobile application is an untrusted mobile application and
deny the mobile application access to the computing resources
(block 1312).
[0160] In FIG. 14. a flowchart 1400 of example method steps for
enforcing application policies during operation of a managed mobile
application is shown. As noted above, the enterprise application
server may provide application policies associated with the managed
mobile applications installed at mobile devices. An enterprise may
periodically update the application policies, and the access
manager may thus be configured to ensure the most recent and
up-to-date application policies are stored at a mobile device
before permitting a managed mobile application from accessing the
computing resources. In this way, the enterprise may grant or
revoke entitlements to applications and application
functionalities.
[0161] After the access manager validates the identity of a managed
mobile application (block 1402), the access manager may retrieve
the application policy associated with the managed mobile
application and stored at the mobile device (block 1404). The
access manager may then query the enterprise application server for
policy information associated with the application policy (block
1406), e.g., a policy date, a policy version number, and the like.
Based on the policy information received from the enterprise
application server, the access manager may determine whether the
application policy stored at the mobile device is current (block
1408). As an example, the access manager may compare the policy
date or policy version received from the enterprise application
server to the policy date or policy version of the application
policy stored at the mobile device. If the policy date or policy
version do not match, then the access manager may determine that
the application policy stored at the mobile device is not current
(block 1408:N). If the policy date or policy version do match, then
the access manager may determine that the application policy stored
at the mobile device is current (block 1408:Y).
[0162] If the application policy is not current (block 1408:N),
then the access manager may retrieve the current policy associated
with the mobile application from the enterprise system, e.g., the
enterprise application store (block 1410). The access manager may
download the current application policy and store the current
application policy at a secure storage location at the mobile
device (block 1412). Once the access manager has obtained the
current policy for the mobile application, the managed mobile
application may refer to the application policy to determine
whether it may access or use the computing resource as intended
(block 1414).
[0163] The management framework, for example, may configure the
managed mobile application to query the policy before accessing or
using a computing resource. As an example, the framework may
configure the managed mobile application to query the application
policy in order to determine whether data may be copied to another
mobile application at the mobile device. In some example
implementations, the managed mobile application may only copy the
data to other managed mobile applications at the mobile device. As
another example, the framework may configure the managed mobile
application to query the application policy in order to determine
whether the mobile device may capture a screenshot of the managed
mobile application. These and other examples will be appreciated
with the benefit of this disclosure.
[0164] If the application policy permits the managed mobile
application to access or use computing resource as intended (block
1416:Y), then the framework may permit the managed mobile
application to carry out the intended action (block 1418). If,
however, the application policy does not permit the managed mobile
application to access or use the computing resource as intended
(block 1418:N), then the framework may prevent the managed mobile
application from carrying out the intended action (block 1420).
[0165] Mobile Application Management with Mobile Device
Management
[0166] Although mobile application management (MAM) has been
discussed in the context of an unmanaged device, aspects of the
present disclosure may also be employed with respect to managed
devices as well. An enterprise may utilize mobile device management
(MDM) in conjunction with mobile application management to further
control the operation of the mobile device. In particular, the
mobile device may enroll with an MDM system to establish a managed
relationship between the MDM system and the mobile device. Once the
mobile device is enrolled, the MDM system may leverage the managed
relationship to enforce policies, monitor the mobile device, push
information to the mobile device, and the like.
[0167] In sum, the MDM system may obtain information about the
mobile device that would otherwise be unavailable absent the
managed relationship. Such information may correspond to
device-level settings that are not discoverable or readable through
applications at the mobile device. Such device-level settings may
include PIN or password settings, encryption settings,
network-related settings, and the like. Such information may also
include information regarding the processes currently running at
the mobile device and the mobile applications installed at the
mobile device (e.g., the application inventory). The MDM system may
further obtain additional or alternative types of information
pertaining to the managed mobile device. The MDM system may compare
the information obtained from the managed mobile device against
various policies and take various actions in response.
[0168] With respect to a device PIN/password, the MDM system may
obtain information that indicates whether the device is secured via
a PIN/password, the complexity of the PIN/password, and the age of
the PIN/password. Through the managed relationship, the MDM system
may obtain information regarding the PIN/password settings of the
device. The MDM system may compare this information to policies
governing the use of device PINs/passwords. As an example, if a
security policy indicates that the mobile device must be secured by
a PIN/password and the information obtained from the mobile device
indicates that the device PIN/password setting is not enabled, then
the MDM system may push notifications to the managed mobile device
indicating the security policy regarding device PINs/passwords. As
another example, if the MDM system determines that the device
PIN/password does not meet the complexity requirements of the
security policy, then the MDM system may likewise push a
notification to the managed mobile device indicating that a new,
more complex PIN/password is required to comply with the security
policy. As a further example, if the security policy indicates that
device PINs/passwords must be changed periodically, then the MDM
system may push a notification to the managed mobile device
indicating the need to change the device PIN/password upon
determining that the current device PIN/password has expired.
[0169] With respect to encryption settings, the MDM system may also
obtain information that indicates whether the device has hardware
encryption enabled. Through the managed relationship, the MDM
system may enable hardware encryption at the managed mobile device
upon determining that a security policy requires hardware
encryption and that hardware encryption is not currently enabled at
the mobile device. The MDM system may also set network-related
settings at the managed mobile device through the managed
relationship.
[0170] The MDM system may additionally obtain information regarding
the processes currently running at the managed mobile device. The
MDM system may compare the running processes against a list of
malicious applications, programs, or processes in order to
identify, e.g., malware at the managed mobile device. Through the
managed relationship, the MDM system may kill any processes
identified as malware or potentially malicious. The MDM system may
also remove the corresponding malicious applications or programs
through the managed relationship with the mobile device.
[0171] Similarly, the MDM system may obtain a list of applications
installed at the managed mobile device. The MDM system may compare
the list of installed applications to, e.g., an application
whitelist or an application blacklist. The application whitelist
may be a list of mobile applications permitted to be installed at
the mobile device. If the list of installed applications includes
an application that does not appear on the mobile application
whitelist, then the MDM system may leverage the managed
relationship to remove the application. The application blacklist
may be a list of mobile applications prohibited from being
installed at the mobile device. If the list of installed
applications includes an application that appears on the mobile
application blacklist, then the MDM system may similarly leverage
the managed relationship to remove the application. It will be
appreciated that the MDM system may additionally leverage the
managed relationship to push mobile applications to the managed
mobile device in order to control which mobile applications are
installed at the mobile device. In view of this disclosure, it will
also be appreciated that the MDM system may exert more robust
control over the mobile applications installed at the mobile
device. As described above, MAM may disable a mobile application
installed at the mobile device upon determination that the
application violates a policy. When MDM is used in conjunction with
MAM, however, the mobile application may not only be disabled, it
may be removed entirely from the mobile device. The MDM system may
push other types of information to the managed mobile device. For
example, the MDM system may leverage the managed relationship to
push application updates or certificates to the mobile device. The
certificates may be, e.g., X.509 device certificates.
[0172] The disclosures provided in this disclosure provide a number
of technical advantages. In general, the approaches set forth above
enable an enterprise to securely and strongly identify a mobile
application regardless of mobile platform. The approaches set forth
above also provide an automated way to verify the identity of
mobile applications accessing potentially sensitive data such as
authentication credentials, digital certificates, enterprise data,
and the like. An enterprise implementing the approaches set forth
above may also reduce the number of physical devices under its
management by allowing individuals to use their personal devices to
access enterprise resources. In this regard, an enterprise may
avoid having to enroll an entire device into a mobile device
management system, and may instead only enroll various mobile
applications at a mobile device in a mobile application management
system. These and other advantages will be appreciated with the
benefit of the disclosures provided above.
[0173] Although the subject matter has been described in language
specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is
to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended
claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts
described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described
above are described as example implementations of the following
claims.
* * * * *