Automated Web Patrol with Strider Honeymonkeys: Finding Web Sites That Exploit Browser Vulnerabilities
Automated Web Patrol with Strider HoneyMonkeys: Finding Web Sites That Exploit Browser Vulnerabilities Yi-Min Wang, Doug Beck, Xuxian Jiang, Roussi Roussev, Chad Verbowski, Shuo Chen, and Sam King Microsoft Research, Redmond Abstract these analyses provide very useful and detailed information about which vulnerabilities are exploited and Internet attacks that use malicious web sites to install which malware programs are installed, such efforts are not malware programs by exploiting browser vulnerabilities scalable, do not provide a comprehensive picture of the are a serious emerging threat. In response, we have problem, and are generally ineffective at efficiently developed an automated web patrol system to finding new malicious sites. automatically identify and monitor these malicious sites. To address these issues, we developed a system that We describe the design and implementation of the Strider uses a pipeline of active, client-side, Virtual Machine HoneyMonkey Exploit Detection System, which consists of (VM)-based honeypots [H,HC], called Strider a pipeline of “monkey programs” running possibly HoneyMonkeys, to perform large-scale, systematic and vulnerable browsers on virtual machines with different automated web patrol. The HoneyMonkey system uses patch levels and patrolling the Web to seek out and monkey programs1 that run within virtual machines with classify web sites that exploit browser vulnerabilities. OS’s of various patch levels to drive web browsers in an Within the first month of utilizing this system, we attempt to mimic human web browsing. Our approach identified 752 unique URLs hosted on 288 web sites that adopts a state-management methodology to cybersecurity: could successfully exploit unpatched Windows XP instead of directly detecting the acts of vulnerability machines.
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