Patent ID: 11874845
Assignee: FORTINET, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method in a centralized state engine on a security device of a distributed security environment having a plurality of packet processing devices communicatively coupled to a data communication network comprising:
facilitating decoupling of state storage from packet processing within the distributed security environment by maintaining state information in a state database for each of a plurality of end-to-end packet flows,
wherein the state information for a particular end-to-end packet flow of the plurality of end-to-end packet flows influences how a packet associated with the particular end-to-end packet flow is processed by the plurality of packet processing devices,
wherein the state information further comprises security state information from an IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) representing progress of packet security scanning as reported by a plurality of packet processing devices participating in the distributed security environment over the data communication network and which operate at different times as state producers or state consumers,
wherein the state information associated with the packet is created responsive to receiving the state information associated with the packet from at least two packet processing devices of the plurality of packet processing devices, each packet processing device providing, in the state information, metadata information representing one or more packet processing actions performed upstream in the particular end-to-end packet flow by the packet processing device;
receiving from a first packet processing device of the plurality of packet processing devices, by the centralized state engine, a query pertaining to state information associated with a packet to be processed by the first packet processing device, wherein the state information associated with the packet to be processed influences how the packet is to be processed by the first packet processing device;
responsive to the query, identifying, by the centralized state engine, the state information for the particular end-to-end packet flow based on the query by processing the received query with reference to the state database; and
providing, by the centralized state engine, the first packet processing device with the identified state information by generating a response to the query containing the identified state information.