Application of Content Computing in Honeyfarm

• Introduction• Overview of CDN (content delivery

network)• Overview of honeypot and honeyfarm• New redirection mechanism in honeyfarm• Possible future extension

Introduction

• Honeypot and honeyfarm are important security technologies.

• Efficient and transparent redirection mechanism is necessary for successful construction of honeyfarm.

• Content delivery network (CDN) can be used to implement redirection for honeyfarm.

• Modifications in CDN to make it suitable for redirection in honeyfarm.

Overview of CDN

• CDN:– Dedicated network of servers

– Deploy throughout the Internet

– Fast delivery of web site contents

• Four components of CDN:

– Surrogate servers

– Routers

– Request-routing infrastructure (RRI)

– Accounting logs

• Two primary technologies of CDN:– Intelligent wide area traffic management

• Direct clients’ requests to optimal site based on topological proximity.

• Two types of redirection: DNS redirection or URL rewriting.

– Cache• Saves useful contents in cache nodes.• Two cache policies: least frequently used standard

and least recently used standard.

Overview of honeypot and honeyfarm

• Honeypot– A secure resource.

– A web site with imitated contents to lure hackers.

– To research and explore hackers’ behaviors.

• Three types of honeypot:– Low-interaction honeypot.

– High-interaction honeypot.

– Medium-interaction honeypot.

• Honeyfarm:– One type of high-interaction honeypot.– Many honeypots deployed throughout the

Internet.– Emulates web sites as real as possible.– Currently uses layer 2 VPN to redirect hackers.

• Requirements of redirection in honeyfarm:– Transparency.– Quick access.– Update.

• CDN is able to fulfill requirements of redirection in honeyfarm.

New redirection mechanism in honeyfarm

• Drawback of layer 2 VPN redirection:– Centralized problem creates latency.

• Problems of CDN redirection:– Transparency requirement may not be satisfied.– Comparison of topological proximity in RRI

gives rise to a centralized problem.

• Modifications of CDN to meet the redirection requirements:– Integrating RRI, local DNS server and proxy

cache into one single component called redirection server.

– All honeypots are organized in CDN architecture.

– Redirection servers are organized in a tree structure.

Hacker

Mid-system

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Root server

• Two steps in the handling of hackers:– Identification of potential hackers.– Redirection of identified hackers to the

appropriate honeypot.

• Identification of potential hackers:– Monitoring of unused IP addresses in the

intranet.– Using rule-based intrusion detection systems

(IDS).– Using firewall.– Identification of potential hackers is done in

‘mid-system’.

• Workflow of redirection of hackers:– Request from hackers to mid-system to resolve

domain name of genuine target is sent to redirection server.

– Redirection server returns its own address to mid-system so that subsequent requests will be redirected to redirection server.

– Hackers ask mid-system to send contents.

– Local redirection server asks all leaf redirection servers if requested contents have been emulated in honeyfarm.

– If yes, then

①②

③

④

①

②

③

④

③

③④

④

④

③

① The lower-layer redi rection server sends the optimal selection to the father node and asks i ts father node to fi nd the optimal honeypot in the father node’ s control l ing domain.

② The father node returns i ts selection of the optimal honeypot in i ts control l ing domain.

③ The father node asks i ts chi ld nodes to fi nd the optimal honeypot in the chi ld nodes’ control l ing domain.

Local redirection server

④ The lower-layer node sends the selection of the optimal honeypot in i ts control l ing domain to the father node.

– If no, hackers are kept in the mid-system by giving some limited privilege.

– Local redirection server selects nearest honeypot and emulate requested contents.

– When emulation completed, IP address of selected honeypot is returned.

– Local redirection server gets contents from the honeypot and disguise them as if they are from the genuine target.

– Emulated contents are sent to mid-system.

• Advantages of the new redirection mechanism:– Transparency - the modification of the requested

contents and identification of the hackers in the mid-systems can ensure transparency.

– Quick access - The distribution of comparing the topological proximity and constructing the honeyfarm in a CDN architecture increase the speed for the honeyfarm to select the best honeypot for content delivery.

– Update - the update approach of CDN can make sure that the information emulated in the honeyfarm can be updated in time.

Possible future extension

• Performance issues of the redirection mechanism.

• Issue of proxy cache.

• Combining URL rewriting and DNS-based redirection.

Thank you!

Q & A