Patent ID: 8495094

Claim:
A method for string signature scanning, comprising: processing one or more variable-size signatures into one or more formats including decomposing each of the one or more variable-size signatures into one or more fixed-size signature substrings and one or more variable-size signature substrings, and building one or more data structures for the one or more fixed-size signature substrings of the one or more variable-size signatures and one or more data structures for the one or more variable-size signatures, where the one or more data structures for the one or more variable-size signatures are indexed by the one or more fixed-size signature substrings of the one or more variable-size signatures and the one or more data structures for the one or more variable-size signatures include one or more of location information of the fixed-size signature substring within the variable-size signature and an identification of the variable-size signature for each fixed-size signature substring; receiving a particular string field including a string of data values; identifying any signatures included in the particular string field including scanning the particular string field for the one or more fixed-size signature substrings of the one or more variable-size signatures, using the one or more data structures for the one or more fixed-size signature substrings of the one or more variable-size signatures for each scan location and searching the particular string field for one or more variable-size signatures associated with one or more identified fixed-size signature substrings using the one or more data structures for the one or more variable-size signatures indexed by the one or more identified fixed-size signature substrings including one or more of checking the location information of each identified fixed-size signature substring and verifying the identifications of the variable-size signatures for the identified fixed-size signature substrings, and updating a dynamic signature synthesis state at the location where the one or more fixed-size signature substrings are identified; and outputting any identified signatures in the particular string field.