Patents by Inventor Mark Andrew CAWSTON

Mark Andrew CAWSTON 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).

  • Publication number: 20250007735
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for implementing a cluster-wide root secret (“CWRS”) key for distributed node clusters. In a multi-node cluster, a leader node has a leader node security system that generates the CWRS key, which is a common secret key for all workloads (e.g., containers or VMs) in the multi-node cluster. The leader node security system encrypts the generated CWRS key using a public key and/or a bootstrap key received from a non-leader node that requests the CWRS key. In examples, the leader node security system signs the encrypted CWRS key using its private key for subsequent verification, by the requesting non-leader node, that the CWRS key was generated by the leader node security system. The CWRS thus encrypted can be securely sent to the requesting non-leader node for subsequent encryption or decryption of secret data by the security system of the non-leader node.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2023
    Publication date: January 2, 2025
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Prashant DEWAN, Andreea Mihaela PINTILIE, Mark Andrew CAWSTON, Kaloyan Aleksandro ALEKSIEV
  • Publication number: 20240078103
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to building and finalizing an operating system (OS) image package in a way that allows for flexibility and customization of OS images while preventing certain runtime modifications after deployment of the OS image package on one or more target devices (e.g., embedded devices). For example, the systems described herein can build an OS image package based on information from an OS manifest that provides a declarative summary of a target OS. The systems described herein can further finalize the OS image package by performing one or more actions on the OS image package that prevent an end-user from performing various runtime modifications to the target OS after deployment of the OS image package. This finalization process provides an improved pipeline for implementing OS updates while providing safeguards against a variety of security risks associated with deploying OS image packages on a large scale.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Sudhanva HURULI, Reuben Ross OLINSKY, Mark Andrew CAWSTON, Rebecca Leigh HOLT
  • Patent number: 11809850
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to building and finalizing an operating system (OS) image package in a way that allows for flexibility and customization of OS images while preventing certain runtime modifications after deployment of the OS image package on one or more target devices (e.g., embedded devices). For example, the systems described herein can build an OS image package based on information from an OS manifest that provides a declarative summary of a target OS. The systems described herein can further finalize the OS image package by performing one or more actions on the OS image package that prevent an end-user from performing various runtime modifications to the target OS after deployment of the OS image package. This finalization process provides an improved pipeline for implementing OS updates while providing safeguards against a variety of security risks associated with deploying OS image packages on a large scale.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Sudhanva Huruli, Reuben Ross Olinsky, Mark Andrew Cawston, Rebecca Leigh Holt
  • Publication number: 20230069485
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to building and finalizing an operating system (OS) image package in a way that allows for flexibility and customization of OS images while preventing certain runtime modifications after deployment of the OS image package on one or more target devices (e.g., embedded devices). For example, the systems described herein can build an OS image package based on information from an OS manifest that provides a declarative summary of a target OS. The systems described herein can further finalize the OS image package by performing one or more actions on the OS image package that prevent an end-user from performing various runtime modifications to the target OS after deployment of the OS image package. This finalization process provides an improved pipeline for implementing OS updates while providing safeguards against a variety of security risks associated with deploying OS image packages on a large scale.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2021
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Sudhanva HURULI, Reuben Ross OLINSKY, Mark Andrew CAWSTON, Rebecca Leigh HOLT