Attacks against Computer Network: Formal Grammar-Based Framework and Simulation Tool

Abstract

The paper presents an approach and formal framework for modeling attacks against computer network and its software implementation on the basis of a multi-agent architecture. The model of an attack is considered as a complex process of contest of adversary entities those are malefactor or team of malefactors, on the one hand, and network security system implementing a security policy, on the other hand. The paper focuses on the conceptual justification of the chosen approach, specification of the basic components composing attack model, formal frameworks for specification of the above components and their interaction in simulation procedure. The peculiarities of the developed approach are the followings: (1) malefactor’s intention-centric attack modeling; (2) multi-level attack specification; (3) ontology-based distributed attack model structuring; (4) attributed stochastic LL(2) context-free grammar for formal specification of attack scenarios and its components (“simple attacks”); (5) using operation of formal grammar substitution for specification of multi-level structure of attacks; (6) state machine-based formal grammar framework implementation; (7) on-line generation of the malefactor’s activity resulting from the reaction of the attacked network security system.