IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,757,936
Granted Patent B2
US 11,757,936 · App. 17/575,573 · Granted Sep 12, 2023

Large scale high-interactive honeypot farm

Inventors: Zihang Xiao (Los Gatos, CA); Cong Zheng (San Jose, CA); Jiangxia Liu (Cupertino, CA)
Assignee: Palo Alto Networks, Inc.
H04L63/1491H04L63/0281H04L63/1425
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,757,936
App. No.
17/575,573
Granted
Sep 12, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

Techniques for providing a large scale high-interaction honeypot farm are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system/method/computer program product for providing a large scale high-interaction honeypot farm includes sending traffic detected at a sensor to a smart proxy for a honeypot farm that is executed in a honeypot cloud, wherein the traffic is forwarded attack traffic that is sent using a tunneling protocol, and wherein the honeypot farm includes a plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services; selecting a matching type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on a profile of the attack traffic; forwarding the traffic to an instance of the matching type of vulnerable service; and executing a security agent associated with the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service to identify a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities.

Claims (34)

1. A system comprising:

a processor configured to:

send traffic detected at a sensor to a smart proxy for a honeypot farm that is executed in a honeypot cloud, wherein the traffic is forwarded attack traffic that is sent using a tunneling protocol, wherein the honeypot farm includes a plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services, wherein the smart proxy is located in a cloud network of a security service provider, and wherein the sensor and a plurality of other sensors are located in different geographic locations on one or more other enterprise networks and/or the Internet;

select a matching type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on a profile of the attack traffic and a matching policy to identify a match between attack traffic and vulnerable services to trigger malware associated activities during executing and monitoring of the vulnerable service in the honeypot farm, wherein the honeypot cloud is configured with a plurality of layers of security mechanisms including network access controls to restrict network traffic from affecting a customer network, network usage/connection limitations and timeout values to prevent incoming or outgoing flooding or a denial of service (DoS) attack, and network isolations to prevent cross-infection between the vulnerable services;

forward the traffic to an instance of the matching type of vulnerable service; and

execute a security agent associated with the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service to identify a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities, wherein the security comprises a hybrid host-based and network-based IDS agent; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor is an agent executed on a network device and/or a server, and wherein the server is located on the Internet or in an enterprise network.

3. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI).

4. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI) of the traffic for generating the profile of the attack traffic for selecting a matching the type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on the profile of the attack traffic.

5. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the smart proxy is a stateful proxy that performs deep packet inspection (DPI) of the traffic for generating the profile of the attack traffic and implementing a contextual-based analysis for selecting a matching the type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on the profile of the attack traffic, and wherein the smart proxy is located in a cloud network of a security service provider.

6. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the smart proxy is a stateful proxy that performs deep packet inspection (DPI) of the traffic for generating the profile of the attack traffic and implementing a contextual-based analysis for selecting a matching the type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on the profile of the attack traffic including one or more of the following: destination port, payload DPI results, source IP reputation and attacking history, payload history and similarity, and/or randomization.

7. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein an orchestration manager is executed in the honeypot cloud for managing the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services.

8. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service includes a security agent that identifies a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities.

9. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the honeypot farm is executed in the honeypot cloud that is located in a cloud network of a security service provider, and wherein the security service provider provides an interface for accessing a threat report generated based on monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities.

10. A method comprising:

sending traffic detected at a sensor to a smart proxy for a honeypot farm that is executed in a honeypot cloud, wherein the traffic is forwarded attack traffic that is sent using a tunneling protocol, wherein the honeypot farm includes a plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services, wherein the smart proxy is located in a cloud network of a security service provider, and wherein the sensor and a plurality of other sensors are located in different geographic locations on one or more other enterprise networks and/or the Internet;

selecting a matching type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on a profile of the attack traffic and a matching policy to identify a match between attack traffic and vulnerable services to trigger malware associated activities during executing and monitoring of the vulnerable service in the honeypot farm, wherein the honeypot cloud is configured with a plurality of layers of security mechanisms including network access controls to restrict network traffic from affecting a customer network, network usage/connection limitations and timeout values to prevent incoming or outgoing flooding or a denial of service (DOS) attack, and network isolations to prevent cross-infection between the vulnerable services;

forwarding the traffic to an instance of the matching type of vulnerable service; and

executing a security agent associated with the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service to identify a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities, wherein the security comprises a hybrid host-based and network-based IDS agent.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the sensor is an agent executed on a network device and/or a server, and wherein the server is located on the Internet or in an enterprise network.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI).

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI) of the traffic for generating the profile of the attack traffic for selecting a matching the type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on the profile of the attack traffic.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein an orchestration manager is executed in the honeypot cloud for managing the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service includes a security agent that identifies a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the honeypot farm is executed in the honeypot cloud that is located in a cloud network of a security service provider, and wherein the security service provider provides an interface for accessing a threat report generated based on monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities.

17. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

sending traffic detected at a sensor to a smart proxy for a honeypot farm that is executed in a honeypot cloud, wherein the traffic is forwarded attack traffic that is sent using a tunneling protocol, wherein the honeypot farm includes a plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services, wherein the smart proxy is located in a cloud network of a security service provider, and wherein the sensor and a plurality of other sensors are located in different geographic locations on one or more other enterprise networks and/or the Internet;

selecting a matching type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on a profile of the attack traffic and a matching policy to identify a match between attack traffic and vulnerable services to trigger malware associated activities during executing and monitoring of the vulnerable service in the honeypot farm, wherein the honeypot cloud is configured with a plurality of layers of security mechanisms including network access controls to restrict network traffic from affecting a customer network, network usage/connection limitations and timeout values to prevent incoming or outgoing flooding or a denial of service (DOS) attack, and network isolations to prevent cross-infection between the vulnerable services;

forwarding the traffic to an instance of the matching type of vulnerable service; and

executing a security agent associated with the instance of the matching type of vulnerable service to identify a threat by monitoring behaviors and detecting anomalies or post exploitation activities, wherein the security comprises a hybrid host-based and network-based IDS agent.

18. The computer program product recited in claim 17 , wherein the sensor is an agent executed on a network device and/or a server, and wherein the server is located on the Internet or in an enterprise network.

19. The computer program product recited in claim 17 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI).

20. The computer program product recited in claim 17 , wherein the smart proxy performs deep packet inspection (DPI) of the traffic for generating the profile of the attack traffic for selecting a matching the type of vulnerable service from the plurality of container images of distinct types of vulnerable services based on the profile of the attack traffic.

Continuity (2)
Continuation 16721633 · Dec 19, 2019
Related Publication 20220141253A1 · May 5, 2022
Cited By (2)
US 12,242,606 US 12,739,258