Language-Based Generation and Evaluation of NIDS Signatures
We present a methodology to automatically construct
robust signatures whose accuracy is based on formal
reasoning so it can be systematically evaluated.
Our methodology is based on two formal languages
that describe different properties of a given attack. The
first language, called a session signature, describes temporal
relations between the attack events. The second,
called an attack invariant, describes semantic properties
that hold in any instance of the attack. For example, an
invariant may state that a given FTP attack must include
a successful FTP login and can be launched only after
the FTP representation mode has been set to ASCII. We
iteratively eliminate false positives and negatives from
an initial session signature by comparing the signature
language to the language of the invariant.
We developed GARD, a tool for session-signature
construction, and used it to construct session signatures
for multi-step attacks. We show that a session signature
is more accurate than existing signatures.
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Somesh Jha
Last modified: Mon Apr 10 10:21:29 CDT 2006