Detecting worm attacks in cloud computing environment: Proof of concept

Abstract

Cloud computing technology is a concept of providing dramatically scalable and virtualized resources, bandwidth, software and hardware on demand to users. Users can request cloud services via a web browser or web service. Cloud computing consists of valuable resources, such as, networks, servers, applications, storage and services with a shared network. By using cloud computing, users can save cost of hardware deployment, software licenses and system maintenance. Many security risks such as worm can interrupt cloud computing services; damage the spiteful service, application or virtual in the cloud structure. Nowadays the worm attacks are becoming more sophisticated and intelligent, makes it is harder to be detected than before. Based on the implications posed by this worm, this is the urge where this research comes in. This paper aims to build a new model to detect worm attacks in cloud computing environment based on worm signature extraction and features behavioral using dynamic analysis. Furthermore this paper presents a proof of concept on how the worm works and discusses the future challenges and the ongoing research to detect worm attacks in cloud computing efficiently.

Trojan Horse Infection Detection in Cloud Based Environment Using Machine Learning

“…Worm. A worm is a malicious program that can disrupt systems and applications by morphing their primary codes, causing those systems and applications to disintegrate and become unusable [2], [7]. It can multiply, infect, and spread without being attached to a host [8].…”

“…As a result, it may occasionally fail to analyze unknown malware signatures that are not in its database. Static analysis is usually based on signatures, which must be updated on a regular basis and requires human expertise to produce new signatures [2], [7]. Due to the above reasons, it is not used in this research.…”

“…The beginning of this technology was started in the 2000s as the last stage of IT infrastructure development, which indicated a new computing paradigm where individuals gain software solutions and computing power over the networks or Internet [1]. Moreover, cloud computing has appeared as a new model for hosting and distributing services over the Internet [2], [3]. With cloud computing, users have access to the cloud services at their locations so that they can access the data relevant to their tasks without interfering with other people's work and allocated resources.…”

“…In addition, they have the ability to run their applications on many connected computers at the same time. Furthermore, cloud computing enables users to access resources and applications from anywhere and at any time via internet connectivity, without the need to install applications on their personal systems [2], [4].…”

“…There are numerous kinds of possible attacks, such as man-in-the middle attacks, authentication attacks [15], denial-of-service attacks, phishing attacks, and malware injection attacks [2]. Malware attacks (e.g.…”