Patent ID: 7810103

Claim:
A computer system, comprising: at least one storage device, storing data and/or instructions defining: a communication specification having encoded therein at least one rule defined by a communication protocol; a validation module that validates communications that occur between a device driver and a hardware device by determining whether at least a portion of the communications conform to the communication specification, the determining comprising evaluating each one of the at least a portion of the communications with respect to a previous communication to determine whether the at least a portion of the communications conform to the communication protocol; and a redirection module that intercepts communications that occur between the device driver and the hardware device and forwards them to the validation module for validation; and a compliance validation application, the validation module obtaining the communication specification from the compliance validation application; wherein: the compliance validation application operates in user mode; and the computer system further comprises a validation communication channel including a user mode portion and a kernel mode portion, wherein the compliance validation application delivers the communication specification to the user mode portion, the user mode portion delivers the communication specification to the kernel mode portion, and the kernel mode portion delivers the communication specification to the validation module.