Privilege Flow Analysis with Inferred Behavior Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems lack effective methods to detect and prevent privilege escalation attacks by accurately distinguishing the roles of processes and threads within computer software applications, leading to potential unauthorized access and system vulnerabilities.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a privilege flow analysis method that generates a privilege flow graph and an inferred behavior context-aware privilege flow graph to monitor and differentiate the roles of processes and threads, enabling anomaly detection and proactive monitoring of privilege changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional privilege flow analysis is used without program behavior context, then the analysis process is simpler, but the accuracy in distinguishing process roles and detecting anomalies is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces program behavior context as an intermediary layer between the privilege flow graph and anomaly detection. This context includes process behavior patterns, execution sequences, and operational states that mediate the analysis between raw privilege data and security conclusions, thereby improving detection accuracy without directly increasing system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis to infer program behavior context before conducting the main privilege flow analysis. By pre-establishing baseline behavior patterns and process roles, the system prepares contextual information in advance that enhances subsequent anomaly detection accuracy without adding complexity to the core analysis mechanism
2Reliability
If privilege flow analysis is performed without distinguishing process roles, then the analysis is faster and simpler, but the ability to prevent privilege escalation attacks is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments processes into distinct roles based on their behavior patterns and functions within the program. By dividing the monolithic process analysis into role-specific segments, the system can apply targeted security rules to each role, improving security reliability while maintaining analysis efficiency through specialized rather than generic processing
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different analysis depths and security rules to different process roles based on their local characteristics. High-privilege roles receive more stringent monitoring while lower-privilege roles use standard monitoring, thereby improving overall security reliability without uniformly increasing analysis time across all processes
3Measurement precision
If generic privilege monitoring is used without behavior context, then the implementation is easier, but the detection of unauthorized access is less effective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates behavioral context models that copy and represent normal program execution patterns. These contextual models serve as reference copies against which actual privilege operations are compared, enabling accurate unauthorized access detection while implementing a layered approach that keeps the core monitoring simple and adds intelligence gradually
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for performing privilege flow analysis is presented. The computer-implemented method includes monitoring at least one program operating system (OS) event handled by a program, generating a privilege flow graph, determining an inferred program behavior context, and generating, based on a combination of the privilege flow graph and the inferred program behavior context, an inferred behavior context-aware privilege flow graph to distinguish different roles of processes and/or threads within the program.