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.
CAREER: Combating Worm Propagation in Emergent Networks