CAREER: Combating Worm Propagation in Emergent Networks

Sencun Zhu

Pennsylvania State University

0643906

CAREER: Combating Worm Propagation in Emergent Networks

Panel ID: 070111

Abstract

Worms have emerged as one of the leading threats to our

information systems and critical infrastructures. Despite the

tremendous research effort in combating worms, new computer and

system vulnerabilities are continuously reported and new worm

attacks keep succeeding. Another significant trend in worm attacks

is that the number of worm attacks against emergent networks, such

as P2P networks, cellphone networks, and sensor networks, is

rapidly growing. Because of the unique communication models and/or

resource constraints of the emergent networks, most of the

existing solutions for Internet worm defenses are not directly

applicable.

The objective of this project is to combat worm propagation in

these emergent networks. Specifically, various approaches are

designed for rapidly distributing security patches to P2P nodes

infected by worms propagating via file sharing applications and

topological scanning. Also, both device and network sides defenses

are used to contain cellphone worms that propagate through either

multimedia messaging services or Bluetooth interfaces. Finally, it

includes mechanisms to confine worms that propagate by exploiting

the monoculture of sensor programs in sensor networks. The

proposed research will provide fundamental services and tools to

combat worms in emergent networks. It draws upon a variety of

topics including cryptography, graph theory (graph coloring,

percolation theory, partition, dominating set), system (mobile

systems), networking (P2P, cellular network, sensor network) and

statistics. The results of the project will be disseminated widely

through publications and talks, and the proposed research will

also be integrated with the education curricula.