US 12,323,393 B2
Mobile VPN auto-start through app-only management
James Matthew Hamilton Oakley, Holliston, MA (US); and Neil Adam Jacobson, Acton, MA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Jan. 3, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/403,164.
Application 18/403,164 is a continuation of application No. 17/348,541, filed on Jun. 15, 2021, granted, now 11,909,723.
Prior Publication US 2024/0137343 A1, Apr. 25, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04L 9/40 (2022.01); H04L 41/22 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 63/0272 (2013.01) [H04L 41/22 (2013.01); H04L 63/0245 (2013.01); H04L 63/029 (2013.01); H04L 63/20 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for auto-starting a virtual private network (VPN) in a mobile application management (MAM) environment that is operating on a client, said method comprising:
determining that a MAM-controlled application is launching on the client, wherein the MAM-controlled application includes an embedded library that is tasked with automatically starting an external VPN application that is external relative to the MAM-controlled application;
determining whether to trigger an auto-start of the external VPN application based on a policy, wherein the external VPN application is structured to enable multiple MAM-controlled applications, including said MAM-controlled application, to use a same VPN tunnel;
based on the policy, causing the embedded library to trigger the auto-start of the external VPN application, wherein said auto-starting triggers initialization of the VPN tunnel, and wherein the embedded library triggers the auto-start of the external VPN application independently from other logic of the MAM-controlled application; and
causing network communications transmitted to or from the MAM-controlled application to pass through the VPN tunnel.