A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools

With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), security incidents about exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices have become prominent. However, due to the characteristics of IoT devices such as low power and low performance, it is difficult to apply existing security solutions to IoT devices....

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Song-Yi Hwang, Jeong-Nyeo Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-10-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/21/6983
_version_ 1797511769616285696
author Song-Yi Hwang
Jeong-Nyeo Kim
author_facet Song-Yi Hwang
Jeong-Nyeo Kim
author_sort Song-Yi Hwang
collection DOAJ
description With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), security incidents about exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices have become prominent. However, due to the characteristics of IoT devices such as low power and low performance, it is difficult to apply existing security solutions to IoT devices. As a result, IoT devices have easily become targets for cyber attackers, and malware attacks on IoT devices are increasing every year. The most representative is the Mirai malware that caused distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by creating a massive IoT botnet. Moreover, Mirai malware has been released on the Internet, resulting in increasing variants and new malicious codes. One of the ways to mitigate distributed denial of service attacks is to render the creation of massive IoT botnets difficult by preventing the spread of malicious code. For IoT infrastructure security, security solutions are being studied to analyze network packets going in and out of IoT infrastructure to detect threats, and to prevent the spread of threats within IoT infrastructure by dynamically controlling network access to maliciously used IoT devices, network equipment, and IoT services. However, there is a great risk to apply unverified security solutions to real-world environments. In this paper, we propose a malware simulation tool that scans vulnerable IoT devices assigned a private IP address, and spreads malicious code within IoT infrastructure by injecting malicious code download command into vulnerable devices. The malware simulation tool proposed in this paper can be used to verify the functionality of network threat detection and prevention solutions.
first_indexed 2024-03-10T05:52:45Z
format Article
id doaj.art-43c042bb4a274398a602944868199941
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1424-8220
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-10T05:52:45Z
publishDate 2021-10-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Sensors
spelling doaj.art-43c042bb4a274398a6029448681999412023-11-22T21:34:51ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-10-012121698310.3390/s21216983A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention ToolsSong-Yi Hwang0Jeong-Nyeo Kim1Department of Information Security Engineering, University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon 34113, KoreaElectronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon 34129, KoreaWith the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), security incidents about exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices have become prominent. However, due to the characteristics of IoT devices such as low power and low performance, it is difficult to apply existing security solutions to IoT devices. As a result, IoT devices have easily become targets for cyber attackers, and malware attacks on IoT devices are increasing every year. The most representative is the Mirai malware that caused distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by creating a massive IoT botnet. Moreover, Mirai malware has been released on the Internet, resulting in increasing variants and new malicious codes. One of the ways to mitigate distributed denial of service attacks is to render the creation of massive IoT botnets difficult by preventing the spread of malicious code. For IoT infrastructure security, security solutions are being studied to analyze network packets going in and out of IoT infrastructure to detect threats, and to prevent the spread of threats within IoT infrastructure by dynamically controlling network access to maliciously used IoT devices, network equipment, and IoT services. However, there is a great risk to apply unverified security solutions to real-world environments. In this paper, we propose a malware simulation tool that scans vulnerable IoT devices assigned a private IP address, and spreads malicious code within IoT infrastructure by injecting malicious code download command into vulnerable devices. The malware simulation tool proposed in this paper can be used to verify the functionality of network threat detection and prevention solutions.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/21/6983IoT malwarepropagationdiffusiontoolverification
spellingShingle Song-Yi Hwang
Jeong-Nyeo Kim
A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
Sensors
IoT malware
propagation
diffusion
tool
verification
title A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
title_full A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
title_fullStr A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
title_full_unstemmed A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
title_short A Malware Distribution Simulator for the Verification of Network Threat Prevention Tools
title_sort malware distribution simulator for the verification of network threat prevention tools
topic IoT malware
propagation
diffusion
tool
verification
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/21/6983
work_keys_str_mv AT songyihwang amalwaredistributionsimulatorfortheverificationofnetworkthreatpreventiontools
AT jeongnyeokim amalwaredistributionsimulatorfortheverificationofnetworkthreatpreventiontools
AT songyihwang malwaredistributionsimulatorfortheverificationofnetworkthreatpreventiontools
AT jeongnyeokim malwaredistributionsimulatorfortheverificationofnetworkthreatpreventiontools