System and method for directing malicous activity to a monitoring system

• US 9,609,019 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2014
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SentinelOne Inc.
• Original Assignee: Attivo Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Vissamsetty, Venu, Buruganahalli, Shivakumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl, Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): GUNDRY, STEPHEN T
• Application Number:
  US14/549,112
• Publication Number:
  US 20150326588A1
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/142 Denial of service attacks against network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/144 Detection or countermeasures against botnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1491 using deception as countermeasure, e.g. honeypots, honeynets, decoys or entrapment

Abstract

A system of client devices and a server system implementing services makes use of credentials to facilitate authentication of the client devices with the server and generates log entries for different accesses to the server system. A monitoring system places credentials and log entries referencing the monitoring system with the credentials and log entries on the client devices without any authentication or actual access attempts by the client devices to the monitoring system. Unauthorized access to the client devices may result in the credentials and log entries to the monitoring system being accessed and used to access the monitoring system. Attempts to exploit the monitoring system using the credentials and log entries is contained within the monitoring system and data is collected to characterize malicious code attempting to exploit the monitoring system. The data is then used to prevent attacks and detect compromised client devices and server systems.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by a client device, a service on a first server system;

recording, by the client device in a memory device operably coupled thereto, a first record of the accessing of the service on the first server, the first record including an identifier of the first server system and a first description of the accessing of the service;

receiving, by the client device, a second record referencing a second server system and a second description mimicking the first description, the second server system implementing services and monitoring functions operable to gather data with respect to unauthorized code accessing the second server system;

recording, by the client device, the second record in the memory device;

accessing, by the client device using a malicious code module one of accessing and executing on the client device, the second record;

accessing, by the malicious code module executing on one of the client device and another device, the second server system using data contained in the second record;

monitoring, by the second server, activities of the malicious code module with respect to the second server; and

characterizing, by the second server system, the malicious code module according to the monitoring of the activities of the malicious code module;

wherein accessing, by the client device, the service on the first server system comprises authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system; and

wherein recording the first record in the memory device comprises receiving a first credential for automatically authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system and storing the first credential in the memory device; and

wherein the second record is a second credential mimicking data contained in the first credential but referencing the second server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recording the first and second records comprises making entries in a same log file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein recording the first and second records comprises storing the first and second records in one of the same cache file and the same cache folder.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the engagement module and sinkhole module are executed within a single host operating system instance.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting generation of traffic by the malicious module;

identifying a service requested by the traffic; and

instantiating a sinkhole module and provisioning the sinkhole module with the service in response to detecting generation of the traffic and identifying the service requested by the traffic.

6. A system comprising one or more processing devices and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processing devices, the one or more memory devices storing executable code effective to cause the one or more processors to:

access, by a client device, a service on a first server system;

record, by the client device, in a memory device operably coupled thereto, a first record of the accessing of the service on the first server, the first record including an identifier of the first server system and a first description of the accessing of the service;

receive, by the client device, a second record referencing a second server system and a second description mimicking the first description, the second server system implementing services and monitoring functions operable to gather data with respect to unauthorized code accessing the second server system;

record, by the client device, the second record in the memory device;

access, by the client device using a malicious code module one of accessing and executing on the client device, the second record;

access, by the malicious code module executing on one of the client device and another device, the second server system using data contained in the second record;

monitor, by the second server, activities of the malicious code module with respect to the second server; and

characterize, by the second server system, the malicious code module according to the monitoring of the activities of the malicious code module;

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to access, by the client device, the service on the first server system by authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system; and

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to record the first record in the memory device by receiving a first credential for automatically authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system and storing the first credential in the memory device; and

wherein the second record is a second credential mimicking data contained in the first credential but referencing the second server.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing executable code effective to cause a processing device to:

access, by a client device, a service on a first server system;

record, by the client device, in a memory device operably coupled thereto, a first record of the accessing of the service on the first server, the first record including an identifier of the first server system and a first description of the accessing of the service;

receive, by the client device, a second record referencing a second server system and a second description mimicking the first description, the second server system implementing services and monitoring functions operable to gather data with respect to unauthorized code accessing the second server system;

record, by the client device, the second record in the memory device;

access, by the client device using a malicious code module one of accessing and executing on the client device, the second record;

access, by the malicious code module executing on one of the client device and another device, the second server system using data contained in the second record;

monitor, by the second server, activities of the malicious code module with respect to the second server; and

characterize, by the second server system, the malicious code module according to the monitoring of the activities of the malicious code module;

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to access, by the client device, the service on the first server system by authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system; and

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to record the first record in the memory device by receiving a first credential for automatically authenticating the client device with the service on the first server system and storing the first credential in the memory device; and

wherein the second record is a second credential mimicking data contained in the first credential but referencing the second server.