Patent ID: 8353042

Claim:
A method comprising: intercepting by a proxy associated with a network device, logically interposed between a client and a server, a Server Message Block/Common Internet File System (SMB/CIFS) protocol request from the client, the SMB/CIFS protocol request representing a request to make a partial file access to a file associated with a share of the server; the proxy issuing the SMB/CIFS protocol request to the server on behalf of the client; the proxy implementing a single shared holding buffer for the file during a particular SMB/CIFS protocol session, wherein the single shared holding buffer is used for both read and write accesses to the file and is used for accesses to the file by a plurality of processes running on the client by mapping different file IDs referring to the file to the single shared holding buffer; the proxy buffering into the single shared holding buffer data being read from or written to the file as a result of the SMB/CIFS protocol request; and responsive to a predetermined event in relation to the SMB/CIFS protocol or the single shared holding buffer, the proxy determining the existence or non-existence of malicious, dangerous or unauthorized content contained within the single shared holding buffer by performing content filtering on the single shared holding buffer.