Patent ID: 9608959
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for operating a firewall executed by a firewall device, the method comprising: receiving a first data packet over a communications network communicatively coupled to the firewall device; identifying, at the firewall device, that a first protocol of the first data packet does not match any of a plurality of standard protocols previously identified as compliant with Request for Comments (RFC) protocol standards based on a standard protocol list that describes the plurality of standard protocols, the standard protocol list maintained in a memory of the firewall device; retrieving an exception policy list at the firewall device, the exception policy list identifying a plurality of exception protocols and a plurality of exception policies, wherein each exception protocol of the plurality of exception protocols corresponds to an exception policy of the plurality of exception policies, and wherein each exception protocol of the plurality of exception protocols is not compliant with any Request for Comments (RFC) protocol standards and is distinct from every standard protocol of the plurality of standard protocols; identifying that the first protocol of the first data packet matches a first exception protocol of the plurality of exception protocols, wherein the first exception protocol corresponds to a first exception policy that indicates that transmission of the first exception protocol is allowed based on an adoption value of the first exception protocol reaching or exceeding a previously determined adoption threshold, the adoption value based on a number of times that the first exception protocol has been encountered; and transmitting the first data packet to a recipient system based on the first exception policy.