k-Zero Day Safety: Measuring the Security Risk of Networks Against Unknown Attacks

Published

December 10, 2010

Author(s)

Lingyu Wang, Sushil Jajodia, Anoop Singhal, Steven Noel

Abstract

The security risk of a network against unknown zero day attacks has been considered as something unmeasurable since software flaws are less predictable than hardware faults and the process of finding such flaws and developing exploits seems to be chaotic [10]. In this paper, we propose a novel security metric, k-zero day safety, based on the number of unknown zero day vulnerabilities. That is, the metric simply counts how many unknown vulnerabilities would be required for compromising a network asset, regardless of what vulnerabilities those might be. We formally define the metric based on an abstract model of networks and attacks. We then devise algorithms for computing the metric. Finally, we show the metric can quantify many existing practices in hardening a network.

Proceedings Title

Computer Security – ESORICS 2010 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Volume

6345

Conference Dates

September 20-22, 2010

Conference Location

Athens, GR

Conference Title

15th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2010)

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15497-3_35

Local Download

Keywords

attack graphs, network security, security metrics

Citation

Wang, L. , Jajodia, S. , Singhal, A. and Noel, S. (2010), k-Zero Day Safety: Measuring the Security Risk of Networks Against Unknown Attacks, Computer Security – ESORICS 2010 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Athens, GR, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15497-3_35, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905605 (Accessed October 8, 2025)