Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Zheng Dong

Jack Wilson Stokes, Iii

Anthony Paul Penta

Jie Li

Kelvin Shek Yiu

Kevin Patrick Kane

Jinyuan Jia

Jack Wilson Iii Stokes

The disclosure is directed towards the real-time detection and mitigation of security threats to a domain name system (DNS) for a communication network. A graph-theoretic method is applied to detect compromised DNS assets (e.g., DNS servers and web servers that DNS servers map domain names to). A graph is generated from domain name resolution (DNR) transactions. The nodes of the graph represent the DNS assets and edges between the nodes represent the DNR transactions. The graph is analyzed to detect features that signal compromised assets. The detection of such features serves to act as a binary classifier for the represented assets. The binary classifier acts to classify each node as non-compromised or compromised. The analysis is guided by supervised and/or unsupervised machine learning methods. Once the assets are classified, DNR transactions are analyzed in real-time. If the transaction involves a compromised asset, an intervention is performed that mitigates the threat.

Detection and mitigation of security threats to a domain name system for a communication network

Classifiers may be used to analyze a valid certificate received from an unverified entity in an attempt to establish a secure connection with the unverified entity. The classifiers may determine a probability that the certificate is being used improperly by an unauthorized third party. An action may be taken based on the probability, such as allowing the unverified entity to establish a secure connection, blocking the unverified entity from establishing a secure connection, etc. The classifiers may be trained by employing machine learning techniques on a collection of valid, authorized certificates. Additionally, or alternatively, received certificates may be sampled for further analysis based on the probability and/or predefined sampling percentages.

Probabilistic classifiers for certificates

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Bloomington, IN, United States of America

Zheng Dong