Complicating process identification by replacing process information for attack avoidance

Abstract

Security-critical software is open to attacks by adversaries that disable its functionality. To decrease the risk, we propose an attack avoidance method for complicating process identification. The proposed method complicates identification based on process information by dynamically replacing the information held by a kernel with dummy information. Replacing process information makes identifying the attack target difficult because adversaries cannot find the attack target by seeking the process information. Implementation of the proposed method with a virtual machine monitor enhances the security of the mechanism itself. Further, by implementing the proposed method with a virtual machine monitor, modification to operating systems and application programs are unnecessary. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.