PROMIS Letter of Interest

ACRONYM PROMIS

NAME A PROactive Malware Identification System based on Peer-to-Peer Networks

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Description

STREP proposal (FP7/ICT)

Strategic Objective: ICT-SEC-2007.1.7: Critical Infrastructure Protection (Joint Call between ICT and Security Themes FP7-ICT-SEC-2007-1)

Recent worm epidemics showed that the existing centralized worm containment mechanisms are no longer adequate to protect vulnerable systems. This in turn has resulted to a shift towards distributed cooperative systems that aim to safeguard and immunise the susceptible population by automatically vaccinating them. We present PROMIS, a P2P based algorithm that provides its participants with early information regarding the existence of a worm epidemic and lets them automatically adjust their security level. We argue that our approach is based on the principles of hygiene: taking the basic precautions to avoid infection when an epidemic is on the rise.

The homogeneity of most computer systems offers some significant benefits, regarding portability and the standardization of software development. On the other hand highly homogenous environments make easy for rapid malcode to propagate in less time than any traditional reaction is possible. Probably we should pay more attention to the security disadvantages of that approach and start looking for other means to diminish these effects.

Fortunately, we see a more balanced choice of software and hardware in critical infrastructures. In that case a system that is not vulnerable to a specific type of malware, can extract valuable information regarding the mechanisms of the specific attack and pass them to rest of the systems, before these systems get compromised. The systems, which participate in our proposed P2P network can thereafter, apply automatically, some predefined countermeasures, (disabling the HTML preview in their e-mail clients or increasing the security settings of their browser etc) in order to avoid the consequences of a forthcoming malware epidemic. We argue that our approach is based on the principles of hygiene: taking the basic precautions to avoid infection when an epidemic is on the rise.

To alleviate the effects of rapid malcode we propose a cooperative containment algorithm PRoactive malware Identification System – PROMIS and is based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture to provide timely information to the members of a specially crafted P2P group.

Theoretical research regarding our approach have already been published in

• Vasileios Vlachos and Diomidis Spinellis. A PRoactive malware identification system based on the computer hygiene principles. Information Management and Computer Security, 15(4):295–312, 2007 [1]

The simulations we performed in conjunction with the two early prototypes produced positive results. We are planning to build a stable PROMIS system using the experience gained from our past attempts and the experimental results of the simulation. This project aims to:

• Conduct research, extending the findings of PROMIS algorithm, discovering innovative methods to identify malware and to protect critical infrastructures
• Design and build a fully functional PROMIS system running in windows and linux operating system

The project's software deliverables will be available for internal use by the project's partners and in the future could become part of or form the basis of novel products and business solutions. Scientific contributions will be exploited by means of journal articles and conference publications. Licensing and commercial exploitation of research results will be discussed during the proposal preparation phase.

What we need from you

The PROMIS project is a research proposal being submitted for the first time. We plan to carry out the major parts of the write-up using our own resources, although help from partners will be greatly appreciated. We expect our partners to contribute their opinions in areas of their particular expertise and to formally review the proposal before it is being submitted.

Further information and communication

This proposal is initiated by the Software Engineering and Security Group of the Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics and Business, directed by Diomidis Spinellis [2].

Our web site: [3]
Contact us by email at bkarak@aueb.gr.