Cybersecurity Alert Deduplication via Software Component Correlation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cybersecurity solutions in virtualized execution environments generate a large number of alerts that are difficult to manage due to duplication and prioritization challenges, often requiring manual attribution after a breach, and fail to accurately identify duplicate alerts across different detection tools.
Innovation Solution
A method that utilizes a software component associations database to analyze alerts, identify matching and duplicate alerts by correlating software components across the software development infrastructure, specifically through mappings between container images and build files, enabling automated deduplication and prioritization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple cybersecurity detection tools are deployed to monitor different parts of the software development pipeline, then the identification of potential cyber threats is improved, but the number of alerts generated increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges alerts from multiple detection tools by establishing correspondences between alerts generated by different tools. The system identifies that alerts from different tools may refer to the same underlying security issue and consolidates them into unified alert groups, thereby maintaining comprehensive threat detection while reducing the total number of individual alerts that need to be processed and addressed.
2Loss of time
If existing automated deduplication solutions are used, then manual attribution time is reduced, but accuracy in identifying duplicate alerts deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system continuously refines alert correspondence by analyzing alert characteristics, tool metadata, and contextual information. The correspondence establishment process iteratively adjusts and improves accuracy by considering multiple factors such as alert severity, source reliability, and temporal proximity, thereby achieving both automated processing and high accuracy in duplicate identification.
3Reliability
If alerts are processed in real-time to prevent breaches, then threat mitigation effectiveness is improved, but the complexity of managing and prioritizing alerts increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments alert management by organizing alerts into groups based on their correspondences and relationships. Each alert group represents a unified security issue that can be processed and prioritized independently from other groups. This segmentation reduces the complexity of managing individual alerts by allowing the system to focus on a smaller number of consolidated alert groups while maintaining real-time response capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for alert deduplication. A method includes querying a software component associations database based on a plurality of software containers indicated by a plurality of alerts in order to identify a plurality of correlations between software containers among the plurality of software containers, wherein the software component associations database stores at least associations between configuration files of the plurality of software containers and build files used to build the plurality of software containers; identifying at least one set of duplicate alerts among the plurality of alerts based on the identified plurality of correlations, wherein each set of duplicate alerts includes at least two alerts of the plurality of alerts which indicate correlated software containers among the plurality of software containers; and deduplicating the plurality of alerts based on the identified at least one set of duplicate alerts in order to produce a deduplicated set of alerts.