Network security analysis method based on vulnerability correlation

Recently in-depth analysis of network security vulnerability must consider attacker exploits not just in isolation, but also in combination. The general approach to this problem is to compute attack graphs using a variety of graph-based algorithms. However, such methods generally suffer from the exponential state space problem. Therefore, two conceptions of vulnerability correlation matrix and vulnerability correlation graph (VCG) were introduced into network security analysis. An algorithm based on vulnerability correlation matrix was proposed to generate VCGs. An example was given to illustrate the application and effect of the algorithm in network security analysis. Deep analysis shows that VCGs have polynomial complexity of the number of network vulnerabilities, scale well for large networks, are convenient for network manager and helpful to improving network security.