Toward Machine Intelligence that Learns to Fingerprint Polymorphic Worms in IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is fast growing. Non-PC devices under the umbrella of IoT have been increasingly applied in various fields and will soon account for a significant share of total Internet traffic. However, the security and privacy of IoT and its devices have been challenged by malware, particularly polymorphic worms that rapidly self-propagate once being launched and vary their appearance over each infection to escape from the detection of signature-based intrusion detection systems. It is well recognized that polymorphic worms are one of the most intrusive threats to IoT security. To build an effective, strong defense for IoT networks against polymorphic worms, this research proposes a machine intelligent system, termed Gram-Restricted Boltzmann Machine (Gram-RBM), which automatically generates generic fingerprints/signatures for the polymorphic worm. Two augmented N-gram based methods are designed and applied in derivation of polymorphic wormsequences, also known as fingerprints/signatures. These derived sequences are then optimized using the Gaussian-Bernoulli RBM dimension reduction algorithm. The results, gained from the experiments involved three different types of polymorphicworms, show that the system generates accurate fingerprints/signatures even under "noisy" conditions and outperforms related methods in terms of accuracy and efficiency

Obfuscation-based malware update: A comparison of manual and automated methods

Indexación: Scopus; Web of Science.This research presents a proposal of malware classification and its update based on capacity and obfuscation. This article is an extension of [4]a, and describes the procedure for malware updating, that is, to take obsolete malware that is already detectable by antiviruses, update it through obfuscation techniques and thus making it undetectable again. As the updating of malware is generally performed manually, an automatic solution is presented together with a comparison from the standpoint of cost and processing time. The automated method proved to be more reliable, fast and less intensive in the use of resources, specially in terms of antivirus analysis and malware functionality checking times.http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/2961/112

Cybersecurity Games: Mathematical Approaches for Cyber Attack and Defense Modeling

Cyber-attacks targeting individuals and enterprises have become a predominant part of the computer/information age. Such attacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent on a day-to-day basis. The exponential growth of cyber plays and cyber players necessitate the inauguration of new methods and research for better understanding the cyber kill chain, particularly with the rise of advanced and novel malware and the extraordinary growth in the population of Internet residents, especially connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Mathematical modeling could be used to represent real-world cyber-attack situations. Such models play a beneficial role when it comes to the secure design and evaluation of systems/infrastructures by providing a better understanding of the threat itself and the attacker\u27s conduct during the lifetime of a cyber attack. Therefore, the main goal of this dissertation is to construct a proper theoretical framework to be able to model and thus evaluate the defensive strategies/technologies\u27 effectiveness from a security standpoint. To this end, we first present a Markov-based general framework to model the interactions between the two famous players of (network) security games, i.e., a system defender and an attacker taking actions to reach its attack objective(s) in the game. We mainly focus on the most significant and tangible aspects of sophisticated cyber attacks: (1) the amount of time it takes for the adversary to accomplish its mission and (2) the success probabilities of fulfilling the attack objective(s) by translating attacker-defender interactions into well-defined games and providing rigorous cryptographic security guarantees for a system given both players\u27 tactics and strategies. We study various attack-defense scenarios, including Moving Target Defense (MTD) strategies, multi-stage attacks, and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT). We provide general theorems about how the probability of a successful adversary defeating a defender’s strategy is related to the amount of time (or any measure of cost) spent by the adversary in such scenarios. We also introduce the notion of learning in cybersecurity games and describe a general game of consequences meaning that each player\u27s chances of making a progressive move in the game depend on its previous actions. Finally, we walk through a malware propagation and botnet construction game in which we investigate the importance of defense systems\u27 learning rates to fight against the self-propagating class of malware such as worms and bots. We introduce a new propagation modeling and containment strategy called the learning-based model and study the containment criterion for the propagation of the malware based on theoretical and simulation analysis

A structured approach to malware detection and analysis in digital forensics investigation

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of PhDWithin the World Wide Web (WWW), malware is considered one of the most serious threats to system security with complex system issues caused by malware and spam. Networks and systems can be accessed and compromised by various types of malware, such as viruses, worms, Trojans, botnet and rootkits, which compromise systems through coordinated attacks. Malware often uses anti-forensic techniques to avoid detection and investigation. Moreover, the results of investigating such attacks are often ineffective and can create barriers for obtaining clear evidence due to the lack of sufficient tools and the immaturity of forensics methodology. This research addressed various complexities faced by investigators in the detection and analysis of malware. In this thesis, the author identified the need for a new approach towards malware detection that focuses on a robust framework, and proposed a solution based on an extensive literature review and market research analysis. The literature review focussed on the different trials and techniques in malware detection to identify the parameters for developing a solution design, while market research was carried out to understand the precise nature of the current problem. The author termed the new approaches and development of the new framework the triple-tier centralised online real-time environment (tri-CORE) malware analysis (TCMA). The tiers come from three distinctive phases of detection and analysis where the entire research pattern is divided into three different domains. The tiers are the malware acquisition function, detection and analysis, and the database operational function. This framework design will contribute to the field of computer forensics by making the investigative process more effective and efficient. By integrating a hybrid method for malware detection, associated limitations with both static and dynamic methods are eliminated. This aids forensics experts with carrying out quick, investigatory processes to detect the behaviour of the malware and its related elements. The proposed framework will help to ensure system confidentiality, integrity, availability and accountability. The current research also focussed on a prototype (artefact) that was developed in favour of a different approach in digital forensics and malware detection methods. As such, a new Toolkit was designed and implemented, which is based on a simple architectural structure and built from open source software that can help investigators develop the skills to critically respond to current cyber incidents and analyses

Malware Detection and Analysis Tools

The huge amounts of data and information that need to be analyzed for possible malicious intent are one ofthe big and significant challenges that the Web faces today. Malicious software, also referred to as malware developed by attackers, is polymorphic and metamorphic in nature which can modify the code as it spreads.In addition, the diversity and volume of their variants severely undermine the effectiveness of traditional defenses that typically use signature-based techniques and are unable to detect malicious executables previously unknown. Malware family variants share typical patterns of behavior that indicate their origin and purpose. The behavioral trends observed either statically or dynamically can be manipulated by usingmachine learning techniques to identify and classify unknown malware into their established families. Thissurvey paper gives an overview of the malware detection and analysis techniques and tools

Enabling Technologies of Cyber Crime: Why Lawyers Need to Understand It

This Article discusses the enabling technologies of cyber crime and analyzes their role in the resolution of related legal issues. It demonstrates the translation of traditional legal principles to a novel technological environment in a way that preserves their meaning and policy rationale. It concludes that lawyers who fail to understand the translation will likely pursue a suboptimal litigation strategy, face speculative recovery prospects, and may overlook effective and potentially powerful defenses

Применение алгоритмов биоинформатики для обнаружения мутирующих кибератак

Функционал любой системы может быть представлен в виде совокупности команд, которые приводят к изменению состояния системы. Задача обнаружения атаки для сигнатурных систем обнаружения вторжений эквивалентна сопоставлению последовательностей команд, выполняемых защищаемой системой, с известными сигнатурами атак. Различные мутации в векторах атак (включая замену команд на равносильные, перестановку команд и их блоков, добавление мусорных и пустых команд) снижают эффективность и точность обнаружения вторжений. В статье проанализированы существующие решения в области биоинформатики, рассмотрена их применимость для идентификации мутирующих атак. Предложен новый подход к обнаружению атак на основе технологии суффиксных деревьев, используемой при сборке и проверке схожести геномных последовательностей. Применение алгоритмов биоинформатики позволяет добиться высокой точности обнаружения мутирующих атак на уровне современных систем обнаружения вторжений (более 90%), при этом превосходя их по экономичности использования памяти, быстродействию и устойчивости к изменениям векторов атак. Для улучшения показателей точности проведен ряд модификаций разработанного решения, вследствие которых точность обнаружения атак увеличена до 95% при уровне мутаций в последовательности до 10%. Метод может применяться для обнаружения вторжений как в классических компьютерных сетях, так и в современных реконфигурируемых сетевых инфраструктурах с ограниченными ресурсами (Интернет вещей, сети киберфизических объектов, сенсорные сети)

Применение алгоритмов биоинформатики для обнаружения мутирующих кибератак

The functionality of any system can be represented as a set of commands that lead to a change in the state of the system. The intrusion detection problem for signature-based intrusion detection systems is equivalent to matching the sequences of operational commands executed by the protected system to known attack signatures. Various mutations in attack vectors (including replacing commands with equivalent ones, rearranging the commands and their blocks, adding garbage and empty commands into the sequence) reduce the effectiveness and accuracy of the intrusion detection. The article analyzes the existing solutions in the field of bioinformatics and considers their applicability for solving the problem of identifying polymorphic attacks by signature-based intrusion detection systems. A new approach to the detection of polymorphic attacks based on the suffix tree technology applied in the assembly and verification of the similarity of genomic sequences is discussed. The use of bioinformatics technology allows us to achieve high accuracy of intrusion detection at the level of modern intrusion detection systems (more than 0.90), while surpassing them in terms of cost-effectiveness of storage resources, speed and readiness to changes in attack vectors. To improve the accuracy indicators, a number of modifications of the developed algorithm have been carried out, as a result of which the accuracy of detecting attacks increased by up to 0.95 with the level of mutations in the sequence up to 10%. The developed approach can be used for intrusion detection both in conventional computer networks and in modern reconfigurable network infrastructures with limited resources (Internet of Things, networks of cyber-physical objects, wireless sensor networks).Функционал любой системы может быть представлен в виде совокупности команд, которые приводят к изменению состояния системы. Задача обнаружения атаки для сигнатурных систем обнаружения вторжений эквивалентна сопоставлению последовательностей команд, выполняемых защищаемой системой, с известными сигнатурами атак. Различные мутации в векторах атак (включая замену команд на равносильные, перестановку команд и их блоков, добавление мусорных и пустых команд) снижают эффективность и точность обнаружения вторжений. В статье проанализированы существующие решения в области биоинформатики, рассмотрена их применимость для идентификации мутирующих атак. Предложен новый подход к обнаружению атак на основе технологии суффиксных деревьев, используемой при сборке и проверке схожести геномных последовательностей. Применение алгоритмов биоинформатики позволяет добиться высокой точности обнаружения мутирующих атак на уровне современных систем обнаружения вторжений (более 90%), при этом превосходя их по экономичности использования памяти, быстродействию и устойчивости к изменениям векторов атак. Для улучшения показателей точности проведен ряд модификаций разработанного решения, вследствие которых точность обнаружения атак увеличена до 95% при уровне мутаций в последовательности до 10%. Метод может применяться для обнаружения вторжений как в классических компьютерных сетях, так и в современных реконфигурируемых сетевых инфраструктурах с ограниченными ресурсами (Интернет вещей, сети киберфизических объектов, сенсорные сети)

On the security of machine learning in malware C & C detection:a survey

One of the main challenges in security today is defending against malware attacks. As trends and anecdotal evidence show, preventing these attacks, regardless of their indiscriminate or targeted nature, has proven difficult: intrusions happen and devices get compromised, even at security-conscious organizations. As a consequence, an alternative line of work has focused on detecting and disrupting the individual steps that follow an initial compromise and are essential for the successful progression of the attack. In particular, several approaches and techniques have been proposed to identify the command and control (C&C) channel that a compromised system establishes to communicate with its controller. A major oversight of many of these detection techniques is the design's resilience to evasion attempts by the well-motivated attacker. C&C detection techniques make widespread use of a machine learning (ML) component. Therefore, to analyze the evasion resilience of these detection techniques, we first systematize works in the field of C&C detection and then, using existing models from the literature, go on to systematize attacks against the ML components used in these approaches