Skip to main content

Coordinated Web Scan Detection Based on Hierarchical Correlation

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Security and Privacy in New Computing Environments (SPNCE 2019)

Abstract

Web scan is one of the most common network attacks on the Internet, in which an adversary probes one or more websites to discover exploitable information in order to perform further cyber attacks. For a coordinated web scan, an adversary controls multiple sources to achieve a large-scale scanning as well as detection evasion. In this paper, a novel detection approach based on hierarchical correlation is proposed to identify coordinated web campaigns from the labelled malicious sources. The semantic correlation is used to identify the malicious sources scanning the similar contents, and the temporal-spatial correlation is employed to identify malicious campaigns from the semantic correlation results. In both correlation phases, we convert the clustering problem into the group partition problem and propose a greedy algorithm to solve it. The evaluation shows that our algorithm is effective in detecting coordinated web scan attacks, since the metric Precision for detection can achieve 1.0, and the metric Rand Index for clustering is 0.984.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Security Newspaper. https://www.securitynewspaper.com/2016/01/23/web-reconnaissance-attack-infects-3500-websites-possibly-wordpress/. Accessed 20 Nov 2018

  2. Kruegel, C., Vigna, G.: Anomaly detection of web-based attacks. In: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 251–261. ACM (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Valeur, F., Mutz, D., Vigna, G.: A learning-based approach to the detection of SQL attacks. In: Julisch, K., Kruegel, C. (eds.) DIMVA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3548, pp. 123–140. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11506881_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Robertson, W., Vigna, G., Kruegel, C., Kemmerer, R.A.: Using generalization and characterization techniques in the anomaly-based detection of web attacks. In: Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Xie, G., Hang, H., Faloutsos, M.: Scanner hunter: understanding HTTP scanning traffic. In: Proceedings of the 9th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security, pp. 27–38. ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Shancang, L.I., Romdhani, I., Buchanan, W.: Password pattern and vulnerability analysis for web and mobile applications. ZTE Commun. 14(S1), 32–36 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mimura, M., Tanaka, H.: Heavy log reader: learning the context of cyber attacks automatically with paragraph vector. In: Shyamasundar, R.K., Singh, V., Vaidya, J. (eds.) ICISS 2017. LNCS, vol. 10717, pp. 146–163. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72598-7_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Yang, J., Wang, L., Xu, Z.: A novel semantic-aware approach for detecting malicious web traffic. In: Qing, S., Mitchell, C., Chen, L., Liu, D. (eds.) ICICS 2017. LNCS, vol. 10631, pp. 633–645. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89500-0_54

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Green, J., Marchette, D.J., Northcutt, S., Ralph B.: Analysis techniques for detecting coordinated attacks and probes. In: Proceedings of workshop on Intrusion Detection and Network Monitoring, pp. 1–9 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Braynov, S., Jadliwala, M.: Detecting malicious groups of agents. In: Proceedings of the First IEEE Symposium on Multi-Agent Security and Survivability, pp. 90–99. IEEE (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gates, C.: Coordinated scan detection. In: Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Zhou, C.V., Leckie, C., Karunasekera, S.: A survey of coordinated attacks and collaborative intrusion detection. Comput. Secur. 29, 124–1402 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Elias, B.H., Mourad, D., Chadi, A.: On fingerprinting probing activities. Comput. Secur. 43, 35–48 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mazel, J., Fontugne, R., Fukuda, K.: Identifying coordination of network scans using probed address structure. In: Traffic Monitoring and Analysis-8th International Workshop, pp. 7–8 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Jacob, G., Kirda, E., Kruegel, C., Vigna, G.: PUBCRAWL: protecting users and businesses from CRAWLers. In: Proceedings of 21st Usenix Conference on Security Symposium, pp. 507–512. Usenix (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Blondel, V.D., Guillaume, J.L., Lambiotte, R., Etienne, L.: Fast unfolding of communities in large networks. J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. 2008(10), P10008 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Paxson, V.: Bro: a system for detecting network intruders in real-time. In: Proceedings of 7th USENIX Security Symposium. Usenix (1998)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This paper is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB0801900).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liming Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Yang, J., Wang, L., Xu, Z., Wang, J., Tian, T. (2019). Coordinated Web Scan Detection Based on Hierarchical Correlation. In: Li, J., Liu, Z., Peng, H. (eds) Security and Privacy in New Computing Environments. SPNCE 2019. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 284. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21373-2_30

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21373-2_30

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-21372-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-21373-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics