An approach for classifying internet worms based on temporal behaviors and packet flows

Abstract

With the growth of critical worm threats, many researchers have studied worm-related topics and internet anomalies. The researches are mainly concentrated on worm propagation and detection more than the fundamental characteristics of worms. It is very important to know worms' characteristics because the characteristics provide basic resource for worm prevention. Unfortunately, this kind of research cases are very few until now. Moreover the existing researches only focus on understanding the function structure of the worm propagation or the taxonomy of the worm according to a sequence of worm attacks. Thus, in this paper, we try to confirm the formalized pattern of the worm action from the existing researches and analyze the report of the anti-virus companies. Finally, we define the formalized actions based on temporal behaviors and worm packet flows, and we apply our proposed method for the new worm classification. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.