Intrusion Detection Systems Lab

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We are exploring a new type of access control based on the behavior that users typically experience in the network. The users' profile is used as token that will grant or deny access to the network based on whether the profile that defines its behavior is considered normal or not by the members of the network. Currently, we are evaluating the feasibility of content-based and non-content based profile modelling for users in both wired and wireless networks.

Previous work, focused on the highly complex environment of MANETs. Due to its dynamic environment and to the fact that the users are responsible for the security of the communications, MANETs are one of the more restrictive environments where behavior-based access control can take place in.

This project is concerned with security in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (Manets). We are designing a framework to secure the communication between devices in a MANET. The novel concept pursued in this project is the use of behavior profiles computed by each device for two purposes:
a) to authorize the device not solely by presentment of a certification or a shared key, but also by announcing the respective device's behavior profile;
b) to ensure that devices behave "normally" and communicate in conformance with their announced behavior profile.

The behavior of the nodes in the manet may be modelled using any number of anomaly detectors that learn or specify "normal" node behavior.

The technology being developed includes a "model exchange" capability for nodes to share profiles during the authorization phase when nodes enter an established manet. During a communication phase of interaction between manet nodes, the models exchanged during authorization are used to check the validity of the communication.

Thus, behavior profiles are used both to establish trust between manet nodes and to ensure ongoing communication is safe.

• Vanessa Frias-Martinez, Salvatore J. Stolfo, Angelos D. Keromytis "BARTER: Profile Model Exchange for Behavior-Based Access Control and Communication Security in MANETs" Tech Report cucs-036-07 , Department of Computer Science, Columbia University  [PDF]
• Gabriela F. Cretu, Janak J. Parekh, Ke Wang, Salvatore J. Stolfo "Intrusion and Anomaly Detection Model Exchange for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks" to appear. Proceddings of IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference. Jan 2006 [PDF]