Principles of a computer immune system

Natural immune systems provide a rich source of inspiration for computer security in the age of the Internet. Immune systems have many features that are desirable for the imperfect, uncontrolled, and open environments in which most computers currently exis

PrinciplesofaComputerImmuneSystem

AnilSomayaji,StevenHofmeyr,&StephanieForrest

DepartmentofComputerScienceUniversityofNewMexicoAlbuquerque,NM87131

soma,steveah,forrest@cs.unm.edu

Abstract

NaturalimmunesystemsprovidearichsourceofinspirationforcomputersecurityintheageoftheInternet.Immunesystemshavemanyfeaturesthataredesirablefortheim-perfect,uncontrolled,andopenenvironmentsinwhichmostcomputerscurrentlyexist.Theseincludedistributability,di-versity,disposability,adaptability,autonomy,dynamiccov-erage,anomalydetection,multiplelayers,identityviabehav-ior,notrustedcomponents,andimperfectdetection.Theseprinciplessuggestawidevarietyofarchitecturesforacom-puterimmunesystem.

1Introduction

Moderncomputersystemsareplaguedbysecurityvulnera-bilities.WhetheritisthelatestUNIXbufferover oworbuginMicrosoftInternetExplorer,ourapplicationsandoperat-ingsystemsarefullofsecurity awsonmanylevels.Fromtheviewpointoftraditionalcomputersecurity,itshouldbepossibletoeliminatesuchproblemsthroughmoreextensiveuseofformalmethodsandbettersoftwareengineering.Webelievethatsuchanapproachisunlikelytosucceed.

Toseewhy,considerFigure1a.Thisdiagramisaslightcaricature,butitdoespointoutthreekeyassumptionsofthetraditionalview:

1.Securitypolicycanbeexplicitlyandcorrectlyspeci ed,2.Programscanbecorrectlyimplemented,and3.Systemscanbecorrectlycon gured.

Althoughthesestatementsmightbetruetheoretically,inpracticeallarefalse.ConsiderFigure1b.Computersarenotstaticsystems:vendors,systemadministrators,andusersconstantlychangethestateofasystem.Programsareadded

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