Computer implemented techniques for detecting, investigating and remediating security violations to IT infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10375101-B2
Application number	US-201615062374-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2016
Priority date	Mar 13, 2014
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

A method includes collecting system calls and call parameters invoked by monitored applications for target computer systems. The system calls and call parameters are received from operating system kernels on the plurality of target computer systems. Sequences of systems calls and call parameters of the monitored applications are correlated among different target computer systems to deduce malicious activities. Remedial action(s) are performed in response to malicious activities being deduced as being malicious by the correlating. Another method includes determining that network activity at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious. Using IP addresses involved in the suspicious network activity, computer system(s) are determined that are sources of the suspicious network activity. Based on the specific time and the determined computer system(s), application(s) are determined that are executing on the determined computer system(s) that are causing the suspicious network activity. Remedial action(s) are performed for the determined computer system(s).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining that network activity in an infrastructure at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious based at least on network activity as observed on switches in the infrastructure;
determining, using Internet protocol addresses involved in the suspicious network activity observed on one or more of the switches, one or more computer systems in the infrastructure that are sources of the suspicious network activity,
determining, based on the specific time and the determined one or more computer systems, one or more applications executing on the one or more determined computer systems in the infrastructure that are causing the suspicious network activity to be observed at least by determining which applications from the one or more determined computer systems were causing the network traffic at the specific time, and determining which applications were causing network traffic at the specific time is based on collected system calls and call parameters for system calls that were performed by the one or more determined computer systems and is based on corresponding timestamps indicating when the system calls were invoked, where operating system kernels on the one or more determined computer systems have been instrumented via code instructions in the operating system kernels to report at least the system calls and call parameters invoked by monitored applications;
determining whether any collected events and measurements corresponding to the one or more applications are considered significant for analysis;
analyzing any collected events and measurements determined to be significant for analysis to determine whether a security violation has occurred for any of the one or more applications; and
causing, in response to a security violation being deemed to have occurred for at least one of the one or more applications, one or more remedial actions to be performed for the determined one or more computer systems that correspond to the at least one application.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the determined one or more computer systems comprises a virtual machine and wherein causing the one or more remedial actions to be performed further comprises causing the virtual machine to be placed in a quarantine network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the determined one or more computer systems comprises a virtual machine and wherein causing the one or more remedial actions to be performed further comprises causing the virtual machine to be paused.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the determined one or more computer systems comprises a virtual machine and wherein causing the one or more remedial actions to be performed further comprises causing the virtual machine to be shutdown.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the determined one or more computer systems comprises a particular computer system and wherein performing one or more remedial actions further comprises causing the particular computer system to be isolated at least by causing blocking of network traffic to and from the particular computer system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the method further comprises displaying on a display of a particular computer system network activity as observed on switches for a plurality of computer systems;
the determining that network activity at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious based at least on network activity as observed on switches is performed by an administrator based at least on the displayed network activity observed on the one or more switches;
the method further comprises displaying on the display of the particular computer system Internet protocol addresses determined to be involved in the suspicious network activity observed on the one or more switches;
the determining one or more computer systems that are sources of the suspicious network activity is performed by the administrator or automatically by an analytics application based on the determined Internet protocol addresses involved in the suspicious network activity,
the method further comprises displaying on the display of the particular computer system a plurality of applications executing on the one or more determined computer systems, the displaying using the collected system calls for the one or more determined computer systems;
the determining one or more applications executing on the one or more computer systems that are causing the network activity is performed by an administrator using the displayed plurality of applications executing on the one or more computer systems; and
causing one or more remedial actions to be performed for the one or more computer systems is performed by the particular computer system, responsive to input from the administrator.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a specific computer system performs the determining that network activity at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious, the determining one or more computer systems that are sources of the suspicious network activity, the determining the one or more applications executing on the one or more computer systems that are causing the network activity, and the causing one or more remedial actions to be performed for the one or more computer systems.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein using security information external to the infrastructure to determine significance of the collected events and measurements further comprises one or more of the following:
comparing Internet protocol/domain blacklists against network connections created by determined one or more computer systems having the one or more applications;
comparing external file blacklists to assess file creation activities or file modification activities or both file creation and file modification activities by the one or more applications; and
using software vulnerability reports to evaluate the one or more applications.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein using security information external to the infrastructure to determine significance of the collected events and measurements further comprises using a whitelist comprising indications of applications that have been deemed to have no security violations to evaluate the one or more applications.

10. An apparatus, comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memories comprising computer readable code,
wherein the one or more processors, in response to execution of the computer program code, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:
determining that network activity in an infrastructure at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious based at least on network activity as observed on switches in the infrastructure;
determining, using Internet protocol addresses involved in the suspicious network activity observed on one or more of the switches, one or more computer systems in the infrastructure that are sources of the suspicious network activity;
determining, based on the specific time and the determined one or more computer systems, one or more applications executing on the one or more determined computer systems in the infrastructure that are causing the suspicious network activity to be observed at least by determining which applications from the one or more determined computer systems were causing network traffic at the specific time, and determining which applications were causing network traffic at the specific time is based on collected system calls and call parameters for system calls that were performed by the one or more determined computer systems and is based on corresponding timestamps indicating when the system calls were invoked, where operating system kernels on the one or more determined computer systems have be

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Berger Stefan
• Chen Yangyi
• Hu Xin
• Pendarakis Dimitrious
• Rao Josyula
• Sailer Reiner
• Schales Douglas Lee
• Stoecklin Marc

Classifications

• G06F21/554

  involving event detection and direct action · CPC title

• G06F21/566

  Dynamic detection, i.e. detection performed at run-time, e.g. emulation, suspicious activities · CPC title

• H04L63/06

  for supporting key management in a packet data network (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key management H04L9/08) · CPC title

• H04L63/1416

  Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection · CPC title

• G06F21/52 Primary

  during program execution, e.g. stack integrity {; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow} · CPC title