Combined machine learning and formal techniques for network traffic analysis

Abstract

A system generates vector representations of entries of traffic logs generated by a firewall. A first model learns contexts of values recorded in the logs during training, and the system extracts vector representations of the values from the trained model. For each log entry, vectors created for the corresponding values are combined to create a vector representing the entry. Cluster analysis of the vector representations can be performed to determine clusters of similar traffic and outliers indicative of potentially anomalous traffic. The system also generates a formal model representing firewall behavior which comprises formulas generated from the firewall rules. Proposed traffic scenarios not recorded in the logs can be evaluated based on the formulas to determine actions which the firewall would take in the scenarios. The combination of models which implement machine learning and formal techniques facilitates evaluation of both observed and hypothetical network traffic based on the firewall rules.