Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach
Security incidents targeting control systems and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) are on the rise as attackers gain a better understanding of the nature of these systems and their increasing connectivity to information technology (IT). Every year, the number of vulnerabilities associated wit...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/22/12180 |
| _version_ | 1827640750663270400 |
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| author | Seong-Su Yoon Do-Yeon Kim Ka-Kyung Kim Ieck-Chae Euom |
| author_facet | Seong-Su Yoon Do-Yeon Kim Ka-Kyung Kim Ieck-Chae Euom |
| author_sort | Seong-Su Yoon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Security incidents targeting control systems and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) are on the rise as attackers gain a better understanding of the nature of these systems and their increasing connectivity to information technology (IT). Every year, the number of vulnerabilities associated with these incidents increases, making it impractical to apply timely patches for all of them. The current vulnerability assessments, which are the basis for vulnerability patching, have limitations in that they do not adequately reflect the risk of exploitation in the real world after discovery and do not consider operational technology (OT) and industrial control system (ICS) environments other than IT environments. This study proposes to evaluate exploit risk in real-world environments by considering OT/ICS environments and calculating three metrics, including exploit chain risk, exploit code availability, and exploit use probability based on cyber threat information, including IIoT vulnerability data, used in OT/ICS environments. In addition, we construct exploitation scenarios in a control system environment to prioritize vulnerabilities with a high risk of exploitation based on the three metrics. We show that by assessing the risk of attackers’ intentions and exploited technologies for attacks against IIoT devices in a control system environment, we can provide defenders with comprehensive attack risk information for proactive defense. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:03:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e5a69ba69ac74af7bd7fff34d89efb73 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:03:59Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-e5a69ba69ac74af7bd7fff34d89efb732023-11-24T14:26:31ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172023-11-0113221218010.3390/app132212180Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security ApproachSeong-Su Yoon0Do-Yeon Kim1Ka-Kyung Kim2Ieck-Chae Euom3System Security Research Center, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of KoreaSystem Security Research Center, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of KoreaSystem Security Research Center, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Data Science, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of KoreaSecurity incidents targeting control systems and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) are on the rise as attackers gain a better understanding of the nature of these systems and their increasing connectivity to information technology (IT). Every year, the number of vulnerabilities associated with these incidents increases, making it impractical to apply timely patches for all of them. The current vulnerability assessments, which are the basis for vulnerability patching, have limitations in that they do not adequately reflect the risk of exploitation in the real world after discovery and do not consider operational technology (OT) and industrial control system (ICS) environments other than IT environments. This study proposes to evaluate exploit risk in real-world environments by considering OT/ICS environments and calculating three metrics, including exploit chain risk, exploit code availability, and exploit use probability based on cyber threat information, including IIoT vulnerability data, used in OT/ICS environments. In addition, we construct exploitation scenarios in a control system environment to prioritize vulnerabilities with a high risk of exploitation based on the three metrics. We show that by assessing the risk of attackers’ intentions and exploited technologies for attacks against IIoT devices in a control system environment, we can provide defenders with comprehensive attack risk information for proactive defense.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/22/12180intelligent systemsdata sciencevulnerability managementexploitationindustrial internet of things |
| spellingShingle | Seong-Su Yoon Do-Yeon Kim Ka-Kyung Kim Ieck-Chae Euom Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach Applied Sciences intelligent systems data science vulnerability management exploitation industrial internet of things |
| title | Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach |
| title_full | Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach |
| title_fullStr | Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach |
| title_short | Vulnerability Exploitation Risk Assessment Based on Offensive Security Approach |
| title_sort | vulnerability exploitation risk assessment based on offensive security approach |
| topic | intelligent systems data science vulnerability management exploitation industrial internet of things |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/22/12180 |
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