SecTracer: A Framework for Uncovering the Root Causes of Network Intrusions via Security Provenance

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lee, Seunghyeon, Seo, Hyunmin, Heo, Hwanjo, Wang, Anduo, Shin, Seungwon, Kim, Jinwoo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lee, Seunghyeon
Seo, Hyunmin
Heo, Hwanjo
Wang, Anduo
Shin, Seungwon
Kim, Jinwoo
author_facet Lee, Seunghyeon
Seo, Hyunmin
Heo, Hwanjo
Wang, Anduo
Shin, Seungwon
Kim, Jinwoo
contents Modern enterprise networks comprise diverse and heterogeneous systems that support a wide range of services, making it challenging for administrators to track and analyze sophisticated attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs), which often exploit multiple vectors. To address this challenge, we introduce the concept of network-level security provenance, which enables the systematic establishment of causal relationships across hosts at the network level, facilitating the accurate identification of the root causes of security incidents. Building on this concept, we present SecTracer as a framework for a network-wide provenance analysis. SecTracer offers three main contributions: (i) comprehensive and efficient forensic data collection in enterprise networks via software-defined networking (SDN), (ii) reconstruction of attack histories through provenance graphs to provide a clear and interpretable view of intrusions, and (iii) proactive attack prediction using probabilistic models. We evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of SecTracer through a real-world APT simulation, demonstrating its capability to enhance threat mitigation while introducing less than 1% network throughput overhead and negligible latency impact.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09266
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SecTracer: A Framework for Uncovering the Root Causes of Network Intrusions via Security Provenance
Lee, Seunghyeon
Seo, Hyunmin
Heo, Hwanjo
Wang, Anduo
Shin, Seungwon
Kim, Jinwoo
Cryptography and Security
Modern enterprise networks comprise diverse and heterogeneous systems that support a wide range of services, making it challenging for administrators to track and analyze sophisticated attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs), which often exploit multiple vectors. To address this challenge, we introduce the concept of network-level security provenance, which enables the systematic establishment of causal relationships across hosts at the network level, facilitating the accurate identification of the root causes of security incidents. Building on this concept, we present SecTracer as a framework for a network-wide provenance analysis. SecTracer offers three main contributions: (i) comprehensive and efficient forensic data collection in enterprise networks via software-defined networking (SDN), (ii) reconstruction of attack histories through provenance graphs to provide a clear and interpretable view of intrusions, and (iii) proactive attack prediction using probabilistic models. We evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of SecTracer through a real-world APT simulation, demonstrating its capability to enhance threat mitigation while introducing less than 1% network throughput overhead and negligible latency impact.
title SecTracer: A Framework for Uncovering the Root Causes of Network Intrusions via Security Provenance
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09266