Penetration Testing Remediation Prioritization via Attack Path Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated penetration testing systems face challenges in effectively prioritizing remediation recommendations due to complex attack paths and dependencies between them, leading to suboptimal security measures and high costs.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that assign importance scores to sub-goals based on the number of attack paths they are included in, allowing for the selection of high-priority sub-goals to be protected, which are then blocked to disrupt multiple attack paths effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automated penetration testing systems provide multiple remediation recommendations, then the comprehensiveness of security coverage is improved, but the complexity of prioritizing and implementing recommendations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments attack paths into sub-goals and identifies critical sub-goals that are common to multiple attack paths. By breaking down the complex set of recommendations into prioritized sub-goals, the system reduces prioritization complexity while maintaining comprehensive security coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple attack paths by identifying common sub-goals across them. This consolidation allows the system to provide fewer, more impactful recommendations by combining the protective effects against multiple attack vectors, thereby reducing complexity while improving reliability.
2Reliability
If the system blocks all attack paths, then the security effectiveness is improved, but the cost of remediation increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of blocking all attack paths, the patent applies partial action by identifying and blocking only the critical sub-goals that are common to multiple attack paths. This selective approach achieves sufficient security effectiveness while significantly reducing the cost of remediation compared to comprehensive blocking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful complexity of multiple attack paths into a benefit by identifying common sub-goals across paths. These common sub-goals become the target of remediation, allowing the system to achieve high security effectiveness by addressing the overlapping vulnerabilities that affect multiple paths simultaneously.
3Manufacturing precision
If the system provides detailed remediation for each attack path, then the precision of security measures is improved, but the time required for implementation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the detailed remediation process into prioritized sub-goals. By organizing recommendations hierarchically with critical sub-goals first, the system enables precise security measures to be implemented in a time-efficient manner, focusing on the most impactful areas initially.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary analysis to identify common sub-goals across attack paths before providing detailed remediation recommendations. This preliminary segmentation allows the system to present prioritized recommendations that reduce implementation time while maintaining precision in security measures.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for providing a recommendation for improving the security of a networked system against attackers. The recommendation may include a recommendation of a single sub-goal to be protected to achieve optimal improvement in security, or of multiple such sub-goals. If the recommendation includes multiple sub-goals, the sub-goals may be ordered such that the first sub-goal is more important to protect, provides a greater benefit by being protected, or is more cost effective to protect than subsequent sub-goals in the ordered list of sub-goals.