Patent ID: 7694022

Claim:
A method in a computer system with a processor and a memory for identifying when communications with a component exposes a vulnerability of the component, the component having a communication protocol with communication protocol states that the component transitions through as it receives communications, the method comprising: providing a specification that specifies at least a portion of the communication protocol states of the component along with characteristics of communications associated with transitioning from one communication protocol state to another communication protocol state and indicates a communication protocol state when the vulnerability is exposed, the specification being independent of any exploitation of the vulnerability, an exploitation being a particular sequence of communications; receiving a plurality of communications for the component; and before each received communication is processed by the component, determining a current communication protocol state of the component; determining a next communication protocol state of the component based on the provided specification and the received message; when the next communication protocol state is the indicated communication protocol state in which the vulnerability is exposed, not providing of the received communication to the component; and when the next communication protocol state is not the indicated communication protocol state, providing the received communication to the component; and setting the current protocol state to the next protocol state.