With increased cyber attacks over years, information system security assessment becomes more and
more important. This paper provides an ontology-based attack model, and then utilizes it to assess the information
system security from attack angle. We categorize attacks into a taxonomy suitable for security assessment.
The proposed taxonomy consists of five dimensions, which include attack impact, attack vector, attack target,
vulnerability and defense. Afterwards we build an ontology according to the taxonomy. In the ontology, attack
related concepts included in the five dimensions and relationships between them are formalized and analyzed in
detail. We also populate our attack ontology with information from national vulnerability database (NVD) about
the vulnerabilities, such as common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE), common weakness enumeration (CWE),
common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS), and common platform enumeration (CPE). Finally we propose an
ontology-based framework for security assessment of network and computer systems, and describe the utilization
of ontology in the security assessment and the method for evaluating attack effect on the system when it is under
attack.
GAO Jian-bo1 (高建波), ZHANG Bao-wen1* (张保稳), CHEN Xiao-hua2 (陈晓桦), LUO Zheng3 (罗 铮)
. Ontology-Based Model of Network and Computer Attacks for Security Assessment[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2013
, 18(5)
: 554
-562
.
DOI: 10.1007/s12204-013-1439-5
[1] Igure V M, Willams R D. Taxonomies of attacks and vulnerabilities in computer systems [J]. IEEE Communications Surveys, 2008, 10(1): 6-19.
[2] Howard J D, Longstaff T A. A common language for computer security incidents [R]. California: Sandia National Laboratories, 1998.
[3] Alvarez G, Petrovic S. A taxonomy of Web attacks suitable for efficient encoding [J]. Computer & Security, 2003, 22(5): 435-449.
[4] Hansman S, Hunt R. A taxonomy of network and computer attacks [J]. Computers & Security, 2005, 24(1): 31-43.
[5] Simmons C, Ellis C, Shiva S, et al. AVOIDIT: A cyber attack taxonomy [R]. Memphis: University of Memphis, 2009.
[6] Raskin V, Hempelmann C F, Triezenberg K E, et al. Ontology in information security: A useful theoretical foundation and methodological tool [C]//Proceedings of the 2001 Workshop on New Security Paradigms. New York: NSPW, 2001: 53-59.
[7] Beitollahi H, Deconinck G. Analyzing well-known countermeasures against distributed denial of service attacks [J]. Computer Communications, 2012, 35(11): 1312-1332.
[8] Simmonds A, Sandilands P, Ekert L V. An ontology for network security attacks [C]//Proceedings of Second Asian Applied Computing Conference. Kathmandu, Nepal: AACC, 2004: 317-323.
[9] Wang J A, Guo M M, Camargo J. An ontological approach to computer system security [J]. Information Security Journal: A Global Perspective, 2010, 19(2): 61-73.
[10] Venter H S, Eloff J H P. A taxonomy for information security technologies [J]. Computers & Security, 2003, 22(4): 299-307.
[11] Herzog A, Shahmehri N, Duma C. An ontology of information security [J]. International Journal of Information Security and Privacy, 2007, 1(4): 1-23.
[12] Noy N F, Mc-Guinness D L. Ontology development 101: A guide to creating your first ontology [R]. Stanford: Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory, 2001.
[13] Blanco C, Lasheras J, Fernandez-Medina E. Basis for an integrated security ontology according to a systematic review of existing proposals [J]. Computers Standards & Interfaces, 2011, 33(4): 372-388.
[14] Baader F, Calvanese D, Mc-Guinness D L, et al. Description logic handbook: Theory, implementation and application [M]. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[15] Gruber T. Towards principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing [J]. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 1995, 43(5-6): 907-928.
[16] Vargas L G, Dougherty J J. The analytic hierarchy process and multicriterion decision making [J]. American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences, 1982, 19(1): 59-92.
[17] Holm H. Performance of automated network vulnerability scanning at remediating security issues [J]. Computers & Security, 2012, 31(2): 164-175.
[18] Hu Ying, Xian Ming, Xiao Shun-ping. Design of a DoS attack effect evaluation system [J]. Computer Engineering & Science, 2005, 27(2): 15-22 (in Chinese).
