Patents by Inventor Ahmed Said

Ahmed Said has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8285958
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for copying a modified page table entry to a translation look aside buffer. In use, a page table entry corresponding to an original page associated with original code is identified. In addition, a page mapping in a translation look aside buffer is invalidated by calling a processor instruction that invalidates the page mapping. Further, the page table entry is modified to correspond to a different page associated with different code. Still yet, an instruction of the different code is accessed for prompting a processor to copy the modified page table entry to the translation look aside buffer. Moreover, the modified page table entry is restored to correspond to the original page associated with the original code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignee: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255016
    Abstract: A below-operating system security agent may be configured to: (i) trap attempted accesses to the components of the operating system and the set of drivers executing on the electronic device; (ii) in response to trapping an attempted access, compare contextual information associated with the attempted access to an access map; and (iii) determine if the attempted access is trusted based on the comparison. The access map may be generated by: (i) trapping, at a level below all of the operating systems of a second electronic device accessing components of the second operating system and the second set of drivers executing on the second electronic device and each substantially free of malware, accesses to components of the second operating system and the second set of drivers executing on the second electronic device; and (ii) in response to trapping the accesses, recording contextual information regarding the accesses to the access map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255001
    Abstract: A system for protecting an electronic system against malware includes an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, a driver coupled to the operating system, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to identify one or more resources for changing filters of the driver, trap an attempted access of the one or more resources that originates from the operational level of the operating system, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic system accessing the one or more resources for changing filters of the driver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120254995
    Abstract: A system for protecting an electronic device against malware includes a memory, an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to trap an attempted access of a resource of the electronic device, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the memory. The attempted access includes attempting to write instructions to the memory and attempting to execute the instructions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255002
    Abstract: A system for protecting an electronic device against malware includes a memory, an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to trap an attempted access of one or more resources of the operating system, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the one or more resources. The attempted access includes an attempted loading or unloading of a driver in the operating system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255014
    Abstract: A security agent may be configured to: (i) execute on an electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing a memory or processor resources of the electronic device; (ii) trap attempted accesses to the memory or the processor resources associated with function calls for thread synchronization objects associated with creation, suspension, or termination of one thread by another thread; (iii) in response to trapping each attempted access, record information associated with the attempted access in a history, the information including one or more identities of threads associated with the attempted access; (iv) determine whether a particular thread is affected by malware; and (iv) in response to a determining that the particular thread is affected by malware, analyze information in the history associated with the particular memory location or processor resource to determine one or more threads related to the particular thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120254982
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for securing a storage device includes an electronic device comprising a processor, a storage device communicatively coupled to the processor, and a security agent. The security agent is configured to execute at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device, intercept a request to access the storage device, identify a requesting entity responsible for initiating the request, and utilize one or more security rules to determine if the request from the requesting entity is authorized. In some embodiments, the security agent is configured to determine whether the request involves a protected area of the storage device. If the request involves a protected area of the storage device, the security agent may be configured to allow the request if the requesting entity is authorized to access the protected area of the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255010
    Abstract: A system for securing an electronic device includes a non-volatile memory, a processor coupled to the non-volatile memory, a resource of the electronic device, firmware residing in the non-volatile memory and executed by the processor, and a firmware security agent residing in the firmware. The firmware is communicatively coupled to the resource of an electronic device. The firmware security agent is configured to, at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the resource, intercept a request for the resource and determine whether the request is indicative of malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120254993
    Abstract: A system for securing an electronic device includes a memory, a processor, one or more operating systems residing in the memory for execution by the processor, a resource of the electronic device communicatively coupled to the operating system, a virtual machine monitor configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the resource, and a security agent configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all operating systems of the electronic device accessing the resource. The virtual machine monitor is configured to intercept a request of the resource made from a level above the virtual machine monitor and inform the security agent of the request. The security agent is configured to determine whether the request is indicative of malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255031
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for protecting an electronic device against malware includes a memory, an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to identify one or more portions of memory for which attempted accesses will be trapped and comprising criteria by which the attempted access will be trapped, trap an attempted access of the memory that originates from the operational level of the operating system, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255004
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for securing access to system calls includes a memory, an operating system configured to execute on an electronic device, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to identify one or more resources associated with a system call for which attempted accesses will be trapped, trap an attempted access of the one or more resources that originates from the operational level of the operating system, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is authorized, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the one or more resources associated with a system call.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120254994
    Abstract: A system for securing an electronic device includes a processor comprising microcode, a resource coupled to the processor, and a microcode security agent embodied the microcode. The microcode security agent is configured to intercept a communication and determine whether the communication is indicative of malware. The communication includes a request made of the resource or information generated from the resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255012
    Abstract: A system for securing an electronic device may include a memory, a processor; one or more operating systems residing in the memory for execution by the processor; and a security agent configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the memory. The security agent may be further configured to: (i) trap attempted accesses to the memory, wherein each of such attempted accesses may, individually or in the aggregate, indicate the presence of self-modifying malware; (ii) in response to trapping each attempted access to the memory, record information associated with the attempted access in a history; and (iii) in response to a triggering attempted access associated with a particular memory location, analyze information in the history associated with the particular memory location to determine if suspicious behavior has occurred with respect to the particular memory location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255017
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for launching a security architecture includes an electronic device comprising a processor and one or more operating systems, a security agent, and a launching module. The launching module comprises a boot manager and a secured launching agent. The boot manager is configured to boot the secured launching agent before booting the operating systems, and the secured launching agent is configured to load a security agent. The security agent is configured to execute at a level below all operating systems of the electronic device, intercept a request to access a resource of the electronic device, the request originating from the operational level of one of one or more operating systems of the electronic device, and determine if a request is indicative of malware. In some embodiments, the secured launching agent may be configured to determine whether the security agent is infected with malware prior to loading the security agent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255011
    Abstract: A security module may be configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of an electronic device accessing the one or more system resources. The security module may be configured to: trap one or more attempts to access system resources of the electronic device, the one or more attempts made from a less privileged ring of execution than the first security module; record information identifying one or more processes attempting to access the system resources of the electronic device; compare the information identifying one or more processes attempting to access the system resources with the enumerated one or more processes visible to the operating system; and based on the comparison, determine one or more hidden processes, the hidden processes determined by at least identifying processes whose information was recorded by first security module but were not enumerated by the second security module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255000
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for protecting an electronic device against malware includes a memory, an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent is configured to trap an attempted access by a first driver of the operating system of a second driver of the electronic device, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the second driver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255018
    Abstract: A security agent configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the memory or a storage of the electronic device may be further configured to: (i) access one or more security rules to determine a criteria by which an attempted access involving a transfer of content between the memory and the storage of an electronic device will be trapped; (ii) if the criteria is met, trap, at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device, attempted access of data between memory and storage of an electronic device; and (iii) analyze, at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device, information associated with the attempted access to determine if the attempted access was affected by malware
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120254999
    Abstract: A method for protecting an electronic device against malware includes consulting one or more security rules to determine a processor resource to protect, in a module below the level of all operating systems of the electronic device, intercepting an attempted access of the processor resource, accessing a processor resource control structure to determine a criteria by which the attempted access will be trapped, trapping the attempted access if the criteria is met, and consulting the one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255003
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for protecting an electronic device against malware includes an object-oriented operating system configured to execute on the electronic device and a below-operating-system security agent. The below-operating-system security agent may be configured to trap an attempted access of an object manager of the operating system, access one or more security rules to determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware, and operate at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device. In some embodiments, the below-operating-system security agent may determine whether the attempted access is indicative of malware by comparing the attempted access to a behavioral state map to determine if the attempted access represents behavior associated with malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam
  • Publication number: 20120255013
    Abstract: A system for securing an electronic device, may include a memory, a processor, one or more operating systems residing in the memory for execution by the processor; and a security agent configured to execute on the electronic device at a level below all of the operating systems of the electronic device accessing the memory. The security agent may be further configured to detect presence of malicious code, and in response to detecting presence of the malicious code, modify the malicious code.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventor: Ahmed Said Sallam