Internet of Things: An Analysis and Proposal of White Worm Technology

2022

Sensors

This paper deals with the observability, controllability, and command and control strategy in the Botnet Defense System (BDS) that disinfects malicious botnets with white-hat botnets. The BDS defends an IoT system built over the Internet. The Internet is characterized by openness, but not all nodes are observable and controllable. We incorporated the concept of observability and controllability into the BDS design and theoretically clarified that the BDS can enhance its observability and controllability by utilizing its white-hat botnets. In addition, we proposed a Withdrawal strategy as a basic strategy to command and control white-hat botnets. Then, we modeled the BDS, adopted the Withdrawal strategy with agent-oriented Petri net PN2 and confirmed the effect through the simulation of the model. The result shows that even if considering observability and controllability, the BDS wiped out the malicious bots and reduced the white-hat bots to less than 1% as long as the white-hat worms were sufficiently infectious.

Section: Simulation Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Botnet Defense System: Observability, Controllability, and Basic Command and Control Strategy

2022

Sensors

“…When utilizing worms like Hajime as a mitigation method against Mirai, there are several challenges to be overcome about viability, capability, legality, and ethics of the worms. Molesky et al [13] discussed some of the challenges from the viewpoints of individual, business and government. They proposed a perspective for utilizing worms through balancing them.…”

Section: Mirai and Hajimementioning

confidence: 99%

White-Hat Worm to Fight Malware and Its Evaluation by Agent-Oriented Petri Nets

2020

Sensors

A new kind of malware called Mirai is spreading like wildfire. Mirai is characterized by targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Since IoT devices are increasing explosively, it is not realistic to manage their vulnerability by human-wave tactics. This paper proposes a new approach that uses a white-hat worm to fight malware. The white-hat worm is an extension of an IoT worm called Hajime and introduces lifespan and secondary infectivity (the ability to infect a device infected by Mirai). The proposed white-hat worm was expressed as a formal model with agent-oriented Petri nets called PN 2 . The model enables us to simulate a battle between the white-hat worm and Mirai. The result of the simulation evaluation shows that (i) the lifespan successfully reduces the worm’s remaining if short; (ii) if the worm has low secondary infectivity, its effect depends on the lifespan; and (iii) if the worm has high secondary infectivity, it is effective without depending on the lifespan.

“…Molesky et al [14] have proposed a new perspective in the use of white-hat worm technology. The point is that not only the manufacturers but also governments can use the technology to fix critical vulnerabilities of IoT devices.…”

Section: White-hat Wormmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Molesky states in Ref. [14] that legally, this could be enacted by including explicit terms within the Terms and Conditions agreement at the time of purchase and creates a contract with the consumer allowing for these actions to occur legally and without liability to the company. This suggests white-hat worm technology is applicable in practice.…”

Section: White-hat Wormmentioning

confidence: 99%

Botnet Defense System: Concept, Design, and Basic Strategy

2020

Information

This paper proposes a new kind of cyber-security system, named Botnet Defense System (BDS), which defends an Internet of Things (IoT) system against malicious botnets. The concept of BDS is “Fight fire with fire”. The distinguishing feature is that it uses white-hat botnets to fight malicious botnets. A BDS consists of four components: Monitor, Strategy Planner, Launcher, and Command and Control (C&C) server. The Monitor component watches over a target IoT system. If the component detects a malicious botnet, the Strategy Planner component makes a strategy against the botnet. Based on the planned strategy, the Launcher component sends white-hat worms into the IoT system and constructs a white-hat botnet. The C&C server component commands and controls the white-hat botnet to exterminate the malicious botnet. Strategy studies are essential to produce intended results. We proposed three basic strategies to launch white-hat worms: All-Out, Few-Elite, and Environment-Adaptive. We evaluated BDS and the proposed strategies through the simulation of agent-oriented Petri net model representing the battle between Mirai botnets and the white-hat botnets. This result shows that the Environment-Adaptive strategy is the best and reduced the number of needed white-hat worms to 38.5% almost without changing the extermination rate for Mirai bots.