Patent ID: 7917636
Filing Date: 2011-03-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of determining whether a user account has been recently used within a minimum inactivity time interval in authentication to a client application in a distributed system deployment comprising a plurality of directory servers and a plurality of log parsing agents, said method comprising: (a) transmitting over a directory access protocol a first request from an access control component connected to said client application to a first directory server wherein said first request comprises a userid parameter identifying said user account, (b) writing by said first directory server of said userid parameter of said first request identifying said user account and a first access time of said first request as a first element to a first access log connected to said first directory server, (c) transmitting over said directory access protocol a second request from said access control component connected to said client application to a second directory server wherein said second request comprises said userid parameter identifying said user account, (d) writing by said second directory server of a second element to a second access log connected to said second directory server wherein said second element comprises said userid parameter of said second request and said second element further comprises a second access time of said second request , (e) establishing a first connection from a first log parsing agent component attached to said first access log to an unused account detection component, (f) updating a first connection time of a first agent record corresponding to said first log parsing agent component in a database attached to said unused account detection component to be a current time at time of said first connection, (g) transmitting over said first connection said first element from said first log parsing agent component to said unused account detection component, (h) updating an access time of an account record corresponding to said user account in said database attached to said unused account detection component with said first access time from said first element transmitted from said first log parsing agent, (i) establishing a second connection from a second log parsing agent component attached to said second access log to said unused account detection component, (j) updating a second connection time of a second agent record corresponding to said second log parsing agent component in said database attached to said unused account detection component to be a current time at time of said second connection, (k) transmitting over said second connection said second element from said second log parsing agent component to said unused account detection component, (l) updating said access time of said account record corresponding to said user account in said database attached to said unused account detection component with said second access time from said second element transmitted from said second log parsing agent if said second access time is later than said first access time, (m) computing an access time difference time interval of said account record between said access time of said account record and a current time at time of computation, (n) computing a first connection time interval for said first log parsing agent as a difference between said current time at time of computation and said first connection time of said first agent record corresponding to said first log parsing agent component in said database attached to said unused account detection component, (o) computing a second connection time interval for said second log parsing agent computed as a difference between said current time at time of computation and said second connection time of said second agent record corresponding to said second log parsing agent component in said database attached to said unused account detection component, (p) computing a minimum connection time interval as a larger value of said first connection time interval and said second connection time interval, (q) comparing said access time difference time interval of said account record with said minimum inactivity time interval and comparing said minimum connection time interval with said minimum inactivity time interval, and (r) determining said user account record as not recently used if said access time difference time interval is greater than said minimum inactivity time interval and said minimum connection time interval is less than said minimum inactivity time interval.