Skip to main content

A Scalable, Vulnerability Modeling and Correlating Method for Network Security

  • Conference paper
Scalable Information Systems (INFOSCALE 2009)

Abstract

Nowadays attacks are becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated, and they are also becoming increasingly interconnected. Recent works in network security have demostrated the fact that combinations of vulnerability exploits are the typical means by which an attacker can break into a network. It is therefore in great need of performing vulnerability analysis to do security analysis first and take the initiative to find hidden safety problems, then plan effective security measures. In this paper, we propose an analysis model, which derives vulnerability analysis functionality from the interaction of three distinct processes: scanning, modeling and correlating. Scanning is served as a significant issue for identifying vulnerabilities. Modeling provides a concise representation for expressing fact base such as host configuration, vulnerability information, and network topology. Moreover, correlating is used to provide a perspective into correlating isolated vulnerabilities in order to construct layered attack graph. Transition rule is presented in scalable design, which enables highly efficient methods of vulnerability correlation algorithm. Finally, a real case study has been described to demonstrate the capability of our model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ou, X., Boyer, W.F., McQueen, M.A.: A Scalable Approach to Attack Graph Generation. In: Proceedings of the 13th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2006), Alexandria, Virginia, USA, October 30-November 3, pp. 336–345 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Jajodia, S., Noel, S., O’Berry, B.: Topological Analysis of Network Attack Vulnerability. In: Kumar, V., Srivastava, J., Lazarevic, A. (eds.) Managing Cyber Threats: Issues, Approaches and Challanges. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Andrews, J., Moss, T.: Reliability and Risk Assessment. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Qu, G., JayaPrakash, R., Hariri, S.: A Framework for Network Vulnerability Analysis. In: Proceedings of IASTED International Conference Communications, Internet and Information Technology (CIIT 2002), St. Thoams, Virgin Islands, pp. 289–298 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Man, D., Zhang, B., Yang, W., et al.: A Method for Global Attack Graph Generation. In: IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC 2008), China, April 6-8, pp. 236–241 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ritchey, R.W., Ammann, P.: Using Model Checking to Analyze Network Vulnerabilities. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Washington, May 2001, pp. 156–165 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Li, W., Vaughn, R.B.: Cluster Security Research Involving the Modeling of Network Exploitations Using Exploitation Graphs. In: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid Workshops, CCGRIDW 2006 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ammann, P., Wijesekera, D., Kaushik, S.: Scalable, Graph-based Network Vulnerability Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 217–224 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Sheyner, O., Haines, J., Jha, S., Lippmann, R., Wing, J.M.: Automated generation and analysis of attack graphs. In: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P 2002), pp. 273–284 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Internet Security Systems, SystemScanner, http://www.iss.net

  11. Tenable Network Security, Nessus, http://www.nessus.org

  12. eEye Digital Security, Retina Network Security Scanner, http://www.eeye.com/html/index.html

  13. Dacier, M.: Towards Quantitative Evaluation of Computer Security. Ph.D Thesis, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (Decemeber 1994)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Noel, S., Jacobs, M., Kalapa, P., Jajodia, S.: Multiple Coordinated Views for Network Attack Graphs. In: Workshop on Visualization for Computer Security, USA, pp. 99–106 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Zhang, S.J., Li, J.H., Chen, X.Z., Fan, L.: Building network attack graph for alert causal correlation. Computer & Security, 1–9 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Cite this paper

Liu, X., Xiao, D., Ma, N., Yu, J. (2009). A Scalable, Vulnerability Modeling and Correlating Method for Network Security. In: Mueller, P., Cao, JN., Wang, CL. (eds) Scalable Information Systems. INFOSCALE 2009. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 18. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10485-5_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10485-5_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10484-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10485-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics