Author
Nicholas J. Puketza,Kui Zhang,Mandy Chung,Biswanath Mukherjee,Ronald A. Olsson
Abstract
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) attempt to identify unauthorized use, misuse, and abuse of computer
systems. In response to the growth in the use and development of IDS\'s, we have developed a methodology for testing
IDS\'s. The methodology consistes of techniques from the field of software testing which we have adapted for the specific
purpose of testing IDS\'s. In this paper, we identify a set of general IDS performance objectives which is the basis for the
methodology. We present the details of the methodology, including strategies for test-case selection and specific testing
procedures. We include quantitative results from testing experiments on the Network Security Monitor (NSM), an IDS
developed at UC Davis. We present an overview of the software platform that we have used to create user-simulation
scripts for testing experiments. The platform consists of the UNIX tool \'expect\' and enhancements that we have developed,
including mechanisms for concurrent scripts and a record-and-replay feature. We also provide background information on
intrusions and IDSs to motivate our work.
Keywords
Intrusion detection, software testing, computer security, computer user simulation