A Factored MDP Approach To Moving Target Defense With Dynamic Threat Modeling and Cost Efficiency

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bose, Megha, Paruchuri, Praveen, Kumar, Akshat
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bose, Megha
Paruchuri, Praveen
Kumar, Akshat
author_facet Bose, Megha
Paruchuri, Praveen
Kumar, Akshat
contents Moving Target Defense (MTD) has emerged as a proactive and dynamic framework to counteract evolving cyber threats. Traditional MTD approaches often rely on assumptions about the attackers knowledge and behavior. However, real-world scenarios are inherently more complex, with adaptive attackers and limited prior knowledge of their payoffs and intentions. This paper introduces a novel approach to MTD using a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model that does not rely on predefined attacker payoffs. Our framework integrates the attackers real-time responses into the defenders MDP using a dynamic Bayesian Network. By employing a factored MDP model, we provide a comprehensive and realistic system representation. We also incorporate incremental updates to an attack response predictor as new data emerges. This ensures an adaptive and robust defense mechanism. Additionally, we consider the costs of switching configurations in MTD, integrating them into the reward structure to balance execution and defense costs. We first highlight the challenges of the problem through a theoretical negative result on regret. However, empirical evaluations demonstrate the frameworks effectiveness in scenarios marked by high uncertainty and dynamically changing attack landscapes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_08934
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Factored MDP Approach To Moving Target Defense With Dynamic Threat Modeling and Cost Efficiency
Bose, Megha
Paruchuri, Praveen
Kumar, Akshat
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Moving Target Defense (MTD) has emerged as a proactive and dynamic framework to counteract evolving cyber threats. Traditional MTD approaches often rely on assumptions about the attackers knowledge and behavior. However, real-world scenarios are inherently more complex, with adaptive attackers and limited prior knowledge of their payoffs and intentions. This paper introduces a novel approach to MTD using a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model that does not rely on predefined attacker payoffs. Our framework integrates the attackers real-time responses into the defenders MDP using a dynamic Bayesian Network. By employing a factored MDP model, we provide a comprehensive and realistic system representation. We also incorporate incremental updates to an attack response predictor as new data emerges. This ensures an adaptive and robust defense mechanism. Additionally, we consider the costs of switching configurations in MTD, integrating them into the reward structure to balance execution and defense costs. We first highlight the challenges of the problem through a theoretical negative result on regret. However, empirical evaluations demonstrate the frameworks effectiveness in scenarios marked by high uncertainty and dynamically changing attack landscapes.
title A Factored MDP Approach To Moving Target Defense With Dynamic Threat Modeling and Cost Efficiency
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.08934