Honeypot Environment Diverts Brute-Force Attacks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Brute-force attacks on password-protected accounts remain a significant threat despite rate-limiting and account lockout policies, as attackers can still gain access using compromised credentials or dictionary attacks, and users often reuse passwords across multiple accounts.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a honeypot environment that mimics a real account to distract attackers and log their actions, providing a fake account access when incorrect credentials are provided, thereby diverting their resources away from production accounts and gathering valuable data for defense strengthening and law enforcement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rate-limiting and account lockout policies are implemented, then brute-force attacks are slowed or blocked, but attackers can still gain access using compromised credentials or dictionary attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful brute-force attack into a beneficial honeypot engagement. When an attacker attempts a brute-force attack, they are redirected to a honeypot environment that appears to be a real account but is actually a trap. The attacker's resources and time are consumed in the honeypot, and their methods are logged for analysis, transforming the attack into a defense-strengthening opportunity.
Solution Approach 2:
The honeypot environment serves as an intermediary between the attacker and the real production account. Instead of directly blocking or confronting the attacker, the system introduces a fake account as a mediator that absorbs the attack while protecting the real account. This intermediary allows the system to study attacker behavior without exposing actual sensitive data.
2Reliability
If a honeypot environment is provided to distract attackers, then real accounts are protected, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The honeypot environment is a simplified copy of the real account interface and functionality. It replicates the essential appearance and basic interactions of a genuine account without containing real sensitive data or full system access. This copying approach allows the honeypot to effectively deceive attackers while maintaining manageable complexity through standardized templates.
3Loss of energy
If attackers are diverted to a fake environment, then their resources are consumed, but logging and monitoring infrastructure is required
Solution Approach 1:
The honeypot environment is designed to automatically log and monitor attacker actions without requiring extensive manual intervention. The system self-services by automatically capturing attack methods, timing, and behavior patterns, storing this information in databases for later analysis. This automation reduces the operational complexity of maintaining the logging infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are various embodiments for providing a honeypot environment in response to incorrect security credentials being provided. An authentication request for an account to log into an application is received from a client. It is determined that the authentication request specifies an incorrect security credential for the account. The client is then provided with access to a honeypot environment in response to the authentication request. The honeypot environment is configured to mimic a successful login to the application via the account.