Network Intrusion Rule Automation via Vulnerability Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing one-size-fits-all model for network security generates large volumes of default rules, leading to overwhelming amounts of false positives and alert overload, which strains resources and increases risk exposure.
Innovation Solution
A network intrusion system that dynamically manages rules by matching associated network vulnerabilities with cumulative vulnerabilities present in network devices, enabling or disabling rules based on relevance, thereby reducing unnecessary rule evaluation and alert generation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If default rules are pushed to IDS/IPS to cover various vulnerabilities, then network security coverage is improved, but alert volume increases leading to overload conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from uniform default rules applied to all networks to customized rulesets tailored to each network's specific vulnerability profile. By analyzing individual network device vulnerabilities and generating customized rulesets, the system achieves local optimization that reduces false positives and alert volume while maintaining security coverage relevant to each network's actual risk profile.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts rule parameters based on network vulnerability assessment results. By changing the parameters of which rules are enabled, disabled, or modified based on the identified vulnerabilities in network devices, the system optimizes the balance between security coverage and alert management capacity for each network.
2Reliability
If numerous default rules are used to ensure comprehensive vulnerability coverage, then security monitoring is improved, but false positive rate increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system generates customized rulesets based on the specific vulnerability profile of each network, rather than applying uniform default rules. This local customization ensures that only rules relevant to the network's actual vulnerabilities are active, significantly reducing false positives while maintaining comprehensive coverage of real security risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and selects only the relevant rules from the comprehensive default ruleset based on the network's identified vulnerabilities. By taking out and applying only the necessary rules rather than all default rules, the system eliminates unnecessary monitoring of non-applicable vulnerabilities, reducing false alerts while preserving coverage of actual threats.
3Reliability
If large volumes of alerts are generated from default rules, then comprehensive monitoring is achieved, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements local customization of rulesets for each network based on its specific vulnerability profile. This approach ensures monitoring comprehensiveness is applied only where needed, reducing unnecessary processing and storage resources consumed by monitoring non-applicable vulnerabilities across the entire network infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of applying full default rulesets to all networks, the system applies partial rulesets customized to each network's actual vulnerability profile. This partial action approach maintains sufficient monitoring comprehensiveness for each network while significantly reducing overall resource consumption by avoiding excessive monitoring of non-relevant vulnerabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A network intrusion system for a protected network includes a ruleset module configured to receive metadata for rules. The metadata describes, for each of the rules, a set of associated network vulnerabilities. The ruleset module is configured to access vulnerability information describing a set of cumulative vulnerabilities that each is present in at least one network device within the protected network. The network intrusion system includes a rule management module configured to, for each rule of the plurality of rules: identify the set of associated network vulnerabilities described by the metadata for the rule, determine whether there is a match between any of the set of associated network vulnerabilities and the set of cumulative vulnerabilities, and, in response to determining that there is no match, transmit a first command signal to a network security module. The first command signal instructs the network security module to disable the rule.