Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Method and tool for network vulnerability analysis

Patent ·
OSTI ID:908549

A computer system analysis tool and method that will allow for qualitative and quantitative assessment of security attributes and vulnerabilities in systems including computer networks. The invention is based on generation of attack graphs wherein each node represents a possible attack state and each edge represents a change in state caused by a single action taken by an attacker or unwitting assistant. Edges are weighted using metrics such as attacker effort, likelihood of attack success, or time to succeed. Generation of an attack graph is accomplished by matching information about attack requirements (specified in "attack templates") to information about computer system configuration (contained in a configuration file that can be updated to reflect system changes occurring during the course of an attack) and assumed attacker capabilities (reflected in "attacker profiles"). High risk attack paths, which correspond to those considered suited to application of attack countermeasures given limited resources for applying countermeasures, are identified by finding "epsilon optimal paths."

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM
Sponsoring Organization:
United States Department of Energy
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
Assignee:
Sandra Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
Patent Number(s):
7,013,395
Application Number:
09/805,640
OSTI ID:
908549
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (7)

Approximation algorithms for shortest path motion planning conference January 1987
Experimenting with quantitative evaluation tools for monitoring operational security journal January 1999
Shortest paths algorithms: Theory and experimental evaluation journal May 1996
A graph-based network-vulnerability analysis system report January 1998
Models and tools for quantitative assessment of operational security book January 1996
A graph-based system for network-vulnerability analysis conference January 1998
On suboptimal alignments of biological sequences book January 1993

Similar Records

A graph-based system for network-vulnerability analysis
Conference · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · OSTI ID:672082

A graph-based network-vulnerability analysis system
Technical Report · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1997 · OSTI ID:573291

A graph-based network-vulnerability analysis system
Conference · Sun May 03 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · OSTI ID:645475

Related Subjects