Aliasing to prevent attacks on messaging services

Patent Number: 7,272,854

Date: September 18, 2007

Inventors: Marceau; Carla (Ithaca, NY), Millikin; Kevin S. (Eden Prairie, MN), Ramanujan; Ranga S. (Eden Prairie, MN)

Abstract: In general, the invention is directed to techniques for preventing or otherwise reducing the effects of network attacks, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, on applications that use messaging services. In particular, the invention may be effective for publish/subscribe messaging services and queuing messaging services. The techniques utilize destination aliasing, a form of channel partitioning, in which each messaging service client associated with a messaging service is assigned a unique alias for each topic that the messaging service client requests service. The aliases may be used for monitoring traffic originating from particular clients, defending applications from network attacks, and preventing resumption of an attack by an attacking client.