A Mixed Abstraction Level Simulation Model of Large-Scale Internet Worm Infestations

  • Authors:
  • M. Liljenstam;Y. Yuan;B. J. Premore;D. Nicol

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-;-;-

  • Venue:
  • MASCOTS '02 Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunications Systems
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

Large-scale worm infestations, such as last year's CodeRed, Code Red II, and Nimda, have led to increased interestin modeling these events to assess threat levels, evaluatecountermeasures and investigate possible influence on theInternet infrastructure. However, the inherently large scaleof these phenomena pose significant challenges for modelsthat include infrastructure detail. We explore the useof selective abstraction through epidemiological models inconjunction with detailed protocol models as a means toscale up simulations to a point where we can ask meaningfulquestions regarding a hypothesized link between wormsand inter-domain routing instability. We find that this approachshows significant promise, in contrast to some ofour early attempts using all-out packet level models. Wealso describe some approaches we are taking to collect theunderlying data for our models.