Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery

Network worms spread widely over the global network within a short time, which are increasingly becoming one of the most potential threats to network security. However, the performance of traditional packet-oriented signature-based methods is questionable in the face of unknown worms, while anomaly-...

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Main Authors: Hangyu Hu, Mingda Wang, Mingyu Ouyang, Guangmin Hu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-02-01
Series:Electronics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/8/2/183
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author Hangyu Hu
Mingda Wang
Mingyu Ouyang
Guangmin Hu
author_facet Hangyu Hu
Mingda Wang
Mingyu Ouyang
Guangmin Hu
author_sort Hangyu Hu
collection DOAJ
description Network worms spread widely over the global network within a short time, which are increasingly becoming one of the most potential threats to network security. However, the performance of traditional packet-oriented signature-based methods is questionable in the face of unknown worms, while anomaly-based approaches often exhibit high false positive rates. It is a common scenario that the life cycle of network worms consists of the same four stages, in which the target discovery phase and the transferring phase have specific interactive patterns. To this end, we propose Network Flow Connectivity Graph (NFCG) for identifying network worm victims. We model the flow-level interactions as graph and then identify sets of frequently occurring motifs related to network worms through Cascading Motif Discovery algorithm. In particular, a cascading motif is jointly extracted from graph target discovery phase and transferring phase. If a cascading motif exists in a connected behavior graph of one host, the host would be identified as a suspicious worm victim; the excess amount of suspicious network worm victims is used to reveal the outbreak of network worms. The simulated experiments show that our proposed method is effective and efficient in network worm victims’ identification and helpful for improving network security.
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spelling doaj.art-784d1f0605fd40d4acc9b61e5783cda82022-12-22T04:21:14ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922019-02-018218310.3390/electronics8020183electronics8020183Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif DiscoveryHangyu Hu0Mingda Wang1Mingyu Ouyang2Guangmin Hu3School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaSchool of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaSchool of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaSchool of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaNetwork worms spread widely over the global network within a short time, which are increasingly becoming one of the most potential threats to network security. However, the performance of traditional packet-oriented signature-based methods is questionable in the face of unknown worms, while anomaly-based approaches often exhibit high false positive rates. It is a common scenario that the life cycle of network worms consists of the same four stages, in which the target discovery phase and the transferring phase have specific interactive patterns. To this end, we propose Network Flow Connectivity Graph (NFCG) for identifying network worm victims. We model the flow-level interactions as graph and then identify sets of frequently occurring motifs related to network worms through Cascading Motif Discovery algorithm. In particular, a cascading motif is jointly extracted from graph target discovery phase and transferring phase. If a cascading motif exists in a connected behavior graph of one host, the host would be identified as a suspicious worm victim; the excess amount of suspicious network worm victims is used to reveal the outbreak of network worms. The simulated experiments show that our proposed method is effective and efficient in network worm victims’ identification and helpful for improving network security.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/8/2/183network wormsnetwork flow connectivity graphflow behavior analysismotif discoverynetwork security
spellingShingle Hangyu Hu
Mingda Wang
Mingyu Ouyang
Guangmin Hu
Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
Electronics
network worms
network flow connectivity graph
flow behavior analysis
motif discovery
network security
title Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
title_full Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
title_fullStr Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
title_full_unstemmed Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
title_short Toward Network Worm Victims Identification Based on Cascading Motif Discovery
title_sort toward network worm victims identification based on cascading motif discovery
topic network worms
network flow connectivity graph
flow behavior analysis
motif discovery
network security
url https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/8/2/183
work_keys_str_mv AT hangyuhu towardnetworkwormvictimsidentificationbasedoncascadingmotifdiscovery
AT mingdawang towardnetworkwormvictimsidentificationbasedoncascadingmotifdiscovery
AT mingyuouyang towardnetworkwormvictimsidentificationbasedoncascadingmotifdiscovery
AT guangminhu towardnetworkwormvictimsidentificationbasedoncascadingmotifdiscovery