Automatically generating network resource groups and assigning customized decoy policies thereto

Abstract

A cyber security system comprising circuitry of a decoy deployer planting one or more decoy lateral attack vectors in each of a first and a second group of resources within a common enterprise network of resources, the first and second groups of resources having different characteristics in terms of subnets, naming conventions, DNS aliases, listening ports, users and their privileges, and installed applications, wherein a lateral attack vector is an object of a first resource within the network that has a potential to be used by an attacker who discovered the first resource to further discover information regarding a second resource within the network, the second resource being previously undiscovered by the attacker, and wherein the decoy lateral attack vectors in the first group conform to the characteristics of the first group, and the decoy lateral attack vectors in the second group conform to the characteristics of the second group.

Claims

1. A cyber security system to detect attackers, comprising: a processor executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium; circuitry of a decoy deployer, under control of said processor via the instructions, (i) planting one or more decoy lateral attack vectors in each of a first and a second group of real resources within a common enterprise network of resources, the first and second groups of real resources having different characteristics in terms of subnets, naming conventions, DNS aliases, listening ports, users and their privileges, and applications that were installed, wherein a decoy lateral attack vector is a decoy data object of a first resource within the network that has a potential to be used by an attacker who discovered the first resource to further discover information regarding a second resource within the network, the second resource being previously undiscovered by the attacker, (ii) conforming the decoy lateral attack vectors in the first group to the characteristics of the first group, and (iii) conforming the decoy lateral attack vectors in the second group to the characteristics of the second group; and circuitry of a learning module, under control of said processor via the instructions, analyzing characteristics of the common enterprise network of resources, and deriving from the analyzed characteristics the grouping of the resources into the first and second groups.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising circuitry of a policy manager, under control of said processor via the instructions, assigning a customized decoy policy to each group of resources, wherein a decoy policy for a group of resources comprises one or more decoy lateral attack vectors, and one or more resources in the group in which the one or more decoy lateral attack vectors are to be planted.

3. A cyber security method for detecting attackers, comprising: planting one or more decoy lateral attack vectors in each of a first and a second group of real resources within a common enterprise network of resources, the first and second groups of real resources having different characteristics in terms of subnets, naming conventions, DNS aliases, listening ports, users and their privileges, and applications that were installed, wherein a decoy lateral attack vector is a decoy data object of a first resource within the network that has a potential to be used by an attacker who discovered the first resource to further discover information regarding a second resource within the network, the second resource being previously undiscovered by the attacker; conforming the decoy lateral attack vectors in the first group to the characteristics of the first group; conforming the decoy lateral attack vectors in the second group to the characteristics of the second group; analyzing characteristics of the common enterprise network of resources; and deriving from said analyzing the grouping of the resources into the first and second groups.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising assigning a customized decoy policy to each group of resources, wherein a decoy policy for a group of resources comprises one or more decoy lateral attack vectors, and one or more resources in the group in which the one or more decoy lateral attack vectors are to be planted.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of a prior art enterprise network connected to an external internet;

(3) FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of an enterprise network with network surveillance, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

(4) FIG. 3 is a simplified illustration of a data collector and learning module, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 is a simplified method for grouping network resources and assigning decoy policies to groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

(6) FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a virtual grouping of resources in the enterprise network of FIG. 2, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

(7) FIG. 6 is a simplified diagram of a system for assembling deception policies for entity groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

(8) For reference to the figures, the following index of elements and their numerals is provided. Similarly numbered elements represent elements of the same type, but they need not be identical elements.

(9) TABLE-US-00001 Table of elements in the figures Element Description 10 Internet 100 enterprise network 110 network computers 120 network servers 130 network switches and routers 140 mobile devices 150 access governor (optional) 252 forensic alert module 160 SIEM server 170 DNS server 180 firewall 200 enterprise network with network surveillance 210 deception management server 211 policy manager 212 deployment module 213 forensic application 214 data collector 215 learning module 220 database of credential types 230 policy database 240 decoy servers 242 forensic alert module 260 update server
Elements numbered in the 1000's are operations of flow charts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(10) In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods are provided for dynamically managing decoy policies for an enterprise network, which adapt to changes that occur in the network environment.

(11) Reference is made to FIG. 2, which is a simplified diagram of an enterprise network 200 with network surveillance, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Network 200 includes a management server 210, a database 220 of decoy attack vectors, a policy database 230 and decoy servers 240.

(12) Database 220 stores attack vectors that fake movement and access to computers 110, servers 120 and other resources in network 200. Each decoy attack vector in database 220 may point to (i) a real resource that exists within network 200, e.g., an FTP server, (ii) a decoy resource that exists within network 200, e.g., a trap server, or (iii) a resource that does not exist. In the latter case, when an attacker attempts to access a resource that does not exist, access governor 150 recognizes a pointer to a resource that is non-existent. Access governor 150 responds by notifying management server 210, or by re-directing the pointer to a resource that does exist in order to survey the attacker's moves, or both.

(13) Decoy attack vectors proactively lure an attacker to make specific lateral moves within network 200. Attack vectors include inter alia: user names of the form <username> user credentials of the form <username> <password> user credentials of the form <username> <hash of password> user credentials of the form <username> <ticket> FTP server addresses of the form <FTP address> FTP server credentials of the form <FTP address> <username> <password> SSH server addresses of the form <SSH address> SSH server credentials of the form <SSH address> <username> <password> share addresses of the form <SMB address>

(14) The attack vectors stored in database 220 are categorized by families, such as inter alia F1user credentials F2files F3connections F4FTP logins F5SSH logins F6share names F7databases F8network devices F9URLs F10Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) F11recent commands F12scanners F13cookies F14cache F15Virtual Private Network (VPN) F16key logger

(15) Credentials for a computer B that reside on a computer A, or even an address pointer to computer B that resides on computer A, provide an attack vector for an attacker from computer A.fwdarw.computer B.

(16) Database 220 communicates with an update server 260, which updates database 220 as new types of attack vectors for accessing, manipulating and hopping to computers evolve over time. Update server 260 may be a separate server, or a part of management server 210.

(17) Policy database 230 stores policies for planting decoy attack vectors in computers of network 200. Each policy specifies decoy attack vectors that are planted on the computers, in accordance with attack vectors stored in database 220. For user credentials, the decoy attack vectors planted on a computer lead to another resource in the network. For attack vectors to access an FTP or other server, the decoy attack vectors planted on a computer lead to a decoy server 240.

(18) It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the databases 220 and 230 may be combined into a single database, or distributed over multiple databases.

(19) Management server 210 includes a policy manager 211, a deployment module 212, a forensic application 213, a data collector 214 and a learning module 215. Policy manager 211 defines a decoy and response policy. The decoy and response policy defines different decoy types, different decoy combinations, response procedures, notification services, and assignments of policies to specific network nodes, network users, groups of nodes or users or both. Once policies are defined, they are stored in policy database 230 with the defined assignments.

(20) Management server 210 obtains the policies and their assignments from policy database 230, and delivers them to appropriate nodes and groups. It than launches deployment module 212 to plant decoys on end points, servers, applications, routers, switches, relays and other entities in the network. Deployment module 212 plants each decoy, based on its type, in memory (RAM), disk, or in any other data or information storage area, as appropriate. Deployment module 212 plants the decoy attack vectors in such a way that the chances of a valid user accessing the decoy attack vectors are low. Deployment module 212 may or may not stay resident.

(21) Forensic application 213 is a real-time application that is transmitted to a destination computer in the network, when a decoy attack vector is accessed by a computer 110. When forensic application 213 is launched on the destination computer, it identifies a process running within that computer 110 that accessed that decoy attack vector, logs the activities performed by the thus-identified process in a forensic report, and transmits the forensic report to management server 210.

(22) Once an attacker is detected, a response procedure is launched. The response procedure includes inter alia various notifications to various addresses, and actions on a decoy server such as launching an investigation process, and isolating, shutting down and re-imaging one or more network nodes. The response procedure collects information available on one or more nodes that may help in identifying the attacker's attack acts, intention and progress.

(23) Each decoy server 240 includes a forensic alert module 242, which alerts management system 210 that an attacker is accessing the decoy server via a computer 110 of the network, and causes management server 210 to send forensic application 213 to the computer that is accessing the decoy server. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, decoy server 240 may store forensic application 213, in which case decoy server 240 may transmit forensic application 213 directly to the computer that is accessing the decoy server. In another alternative embodiment of the present invention, management server 210 or decoy server 240 may transmit forensic application 213 to a destination computer other than the computer that is accessing the decoy server. Access governor 150 also activates a forensic alert module 252, which alerts management server 210 that an attacker is attempting to use a decoy credential.

(24) Notification servers (not shown) are notified when an attacker uses a decoy. The notification servers may discover this by themselves, or by using information stored on access governor 150 and SIEM 160. The notification servers forward notifications, or results of processing multiple notifications, to create notification time lines or such other analytics.

(25) As shown in FIG. 2, network computers 110 and servers 120 are grouped into groups G1, G2, G3 and G4. Accordingly, policy database 230 stores, for each group of computers, G1, G2, . . . , policies for planting decoy attack vectors in computers of that group. Each policy specifies decoy attack vectors that are planted in each group, in accordance with attack vectors stored in database 220.

(26) Data collector 214 collects data regarding network 200: (i) from access governor 150, the collected data comprising network resources and their operating systems, and users and their privileges, (ii) from the network resources, the collected data comprising installed applications, open ports, previous logged on users, browser histories, vault content and shares, (iii) from knowledge bases comprising firewall logs, the collected data including other network data, and (iv) from in/out ports of machines, the collected data including other network data.

(27) Learning module 215 analyzes the data collected by data collector 214, determines groupings of computers, G1, G2, . . . , and assigns a decoy policy to each thus-determined group of computers.

(28) Reference is made to FIG. 3, which is a simplified illustration of data collector 214 and learning module 215, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Data collector 214 analyzes network 200 and collects data including inter alia installed software, open ports, previously connected users, existing documents, browser histories, vault, active directory properties including organization units and their geographic locations, subnets, naming conventions, firewall logs and listening ports.

(29) Learning module 215 analyzes the data collected by data collector 214, and generates virtual groups G1, G2, . . . , and customized attack vectors for each virtual group.

(30) Reference is made to FIG. 4, which is a simplified method for grouping network resources and assigning decoy policies to groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. At operation 1010, data collector 214 collects data about network 200 from a directory service such as access governor 150, from network resources, from knowledge bases including firewall logs and from in/out ports. At operation 1020, learning module 215 generates virtual groups G1, G2, . . . , of network resources. At operation 1030, learning module 215 assigns customized decoy policies to each group. The customized decoy policies include inter alia attack vectors with decoy usernames, DNS aliases and browser histories.

(31) Reference is made to FIG. 5, which is a simplified diagram of a virtual grouping of the resources of enterprise network 200, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 shows a network having two organizational units, one in New York (NY) and one in the United Kingdom (UK), and a partition of the resources into virtual groups as determined by learning module 215. It is noted that the virtual groups need not necessarily be disjoint, and they may instead overlap. FIG. 5 shows such virtual groups G.sub.1, G.sub.2, G.sub.3, G.sub.4, G.sub.5 that overlap.

(32) Reference is made to FIG. 6, which is a simplified diagram of a system for assembling deception policies for entity groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 shows a deceptive policy Deceptive IT Policy 5 customized for a group of resources in New York that includes Shares (Tools, Docs), SSH (Server 1, Server 2) and Browsers (Wiki). The deceptive policy includes attack vectors for decoy shares, for a decoy SSH server, and for a decoy browser. FIG. 6 shows another deceptive policy Deceptive Finance Policy 1 customized for a group of resources that includes Shares (HR, Finance), SSH (Server 1, Server 2) and Browsers (ERP). The deceptive policy includes attack vectors for shares, for a decoy SSH server, and for decoy browsers. Each decoy policy is customized for the virtual group to which it is applied, so that the policy attack vectors appear to be legitimate for that virtual group.

(33) In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.