DSCOPE: A Cloud-Native Internet Telescope

Eric Pauley, Paul Barford, Patrick McDaniel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Data from Internet telescopes that monitor routed but unused IP address space has been the basis for myriad insights on malicious, unwanted, and unexpected behavior. However, service migration to cloud infrastructure and the increasing scarcity of IPv4 address space present serious challenges to traditional Internet telescopes. This paper describes DSCOPE, a cloud-based Internet telescope designed to be scalable and interactive. We describe the design and implementation of DSCOPE, which includes two major components. Collectors are deployed on cloud VMs, interact with incoming connection requests, and capture pcap traces. The data processing pipeline organizes, transforms, and archives the pcaps from deployed collectors for post-facto analysis. In comparing a sampling of DSCOPE’s collected traffic with that of a traditional telescope, we see a striking difference in both the quantity and phenomena of behavior targeting cloud systems, with up to 450× as much cloud-targeting as expected under random scanning. We also show that DSCOPE’s adaptive approach achieves impressive price performance: optimal yield of scanners on a given IP address is achieved in under 8 minutes of observation. Our results demonstrate that cloud-based telescopes achieve a significantly broader and more comprehensive perspective than traditional techniques.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication32nd USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2023
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages5989-6006
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781713879497
StatePublished - 2023
Event32nd USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2023 - Anaheim, United States
Duration: Aug 9 2023Aug 11 2023

Publication series

Name32nd USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2023
Volume8

Conference

Conference32nd USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAnaheim
Period8/9/238/11/23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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