A Software Architecture to Support Misuse Intrusion Detection

Misuse Intrusion Detection has traditionally been understood in the literature as the detection of specific, precisely representable techniques of computer system abuse. Pattern matching is well disposed to the representation and detection of such abuse. Each specific method of abuse can be represented as a pattern and many of these can be matched simultaneously against the audit logs generated by the OS kernel. Using relatively high level patterns to specify computer system abuse relieves the pattern writer from having to understand and encode the intricacies of pattern matching into a misuse detector. Patterns represent a declarative way of specifying what needs to be detected, instead of specifying how it should be detected. We have devised a model of matching based on Colored Petri Nets specifically targeted for misuse intrusion detection. In this paper we present a software architecture for structuring a pattern matching solution to misuse intrusion detection. In the context of an object oriented prototype implementation we describe the abstract classes encapsulating generic functionality and the inter-relationships between the classes.