Computer attack models on software-configurable networks
Authors:   St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saenko Igor B. , Kotenko Igor V. ,   St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lauta Oleg S. ,   Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and inland shipping, Skorobogatov Sergey Yu. ,   Military Academy of Communications named after Marshal of the Soviet Union S.M. Budyonny
Published: May 2023

SDN technology in the near future will allow to introduce aspects of the openness of the code of the network component of the cloud infrastructure, which is considered the most favorable basis for the development and implementation of a wide range of applications. It is based on the implementation of network devices and their functions not in separate network equipment, but on any network host using the OpenvSwitch software switch. This approach allows you to use almost any computing device in the network as a switch/router. At the same time, the use of new technologies entails the emergence of new destabilizing factors on them, in which cyber attacks occupy a special place. Possible results of cyberattacks on SDN are blocking of the SDN controller, Open Flow control and monitoring channel, introduction of false information about the SDN network user receiving network services, violation of established regulations for collecting, processing and transmitting information to SDN, failures and failures in SDN operation, as well as compromise of transmitted or received information. The purpose of the work is to apply an integrated approach to the study of new approaches to building data transmission networks in the conditions of computer attacks, obtaining probabilistic and temporal characteristics of computer attacks characteristic of software-configurable networks, which in turn makes it possible to determine the most dangerous computer attacks, the elements subject to them, as well as to set requirements for a system that provides protection against the most likely impacts. Methods used: the method of topological transformation of stochastic networks used in modeling allows us to obtain parameters with a given completeness and reliability. The difference is no more 5% between the values obtained in the simulation and analytical models confirm their adequacy. The implementation of a large number of real devices in the simulation model, as well as the use of several means of collecting network statistics, allows achieving the required completeness of modeling. Significant detailing of the stages of computer attacks in the method of topological transformation of stochastic networks contributes to obtaining computational expressions that accurately describe the probabilistic-temporal characteristics of the system. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is determined by the use of the method of topological transformation of stochastic networks (TPSS) for analytical modeling of cyberattacks on SDN. Result: the presented model allows us to obtain probabilistic and temporal characteristics of computer attacks characteristic of a software-configurable network. The basis of the proposed model is a simulation model, the main purpose of which is the most accurate reproduction of the processes of a real system. The obtained values of the probabilistic-temporal characteristics of computer attacks allow us to accurately determine the most dangerous types of them, as well as the most likely places of manifestation. Practical significance: the presented method is universal and can be applied in the state system for detecting, preventing and eliminating the consequences of computer attacks when solving tasks related to ensuring public safety.