White-Hat Worm to Fight Malware and Its Evaluation by Agent-Oriented Petri Nets

A new kind of malware called <i>Mirai</i> is spreading like wildfire. Mirai is characterized by targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Since IoT devices are increasing explosively, it is not realistic to manage their vulnerability by human-wave tactics. This paper proposes a new app...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shingo Yamaguchi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/2/556
Description
Summary:A new kind of malware called <i>Mirai</i> is spreading like wildfire. Mirai is characterized by targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Since IoT devices are increasing explosively, it is not realistic to manage their vulnerability by human-wave tactics. This paper proposes a new approach that uses a white-hat worm to fight malware. The white-hat worm is an extension of an IoT worm called <i>Hajime</i> and introduces lifespan and secondary infectivity (the ability to infect a device infected by Mirai). The proposed white-hat worm was expressed as a formal model with agent-oriented Petri nets called <i>PN<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msup> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula></i>. The model enables us to simulate a battle between the white-hat worm and Mirai. The result of the simulation evaluation shows that (i) the lifespan successfully reduces the worm&#8217;s remaining if short; (ii) if the worm has low secondary infectivity, its effect depends on the lifespan; and (iii) if the worm has high secondary infectivity, it is effective without depending on the lifespan.
ISSN:1424-8220