A Game Theoretic Approach to Strategy Determination for Dynamic Platform Defenses

Abstract

Moving target defenses based on dynamic platforms have been proposed as a way to make systems more resistant to attacks by changing the properties of the deployed platforms. Unfortunately, little work has been done on discerning effective strategies for the utilization of these systems, instead relying on two generally false premises: simple randomization leads to diversity and platforms are independent. In this paper, we study the strategic considerations of deploying a dynamic platform system by specifying a relevant threat model and applying game theory and statistical analysis to discover optimal usage strategies. We show that preferential selection of platforms based on optimizing platform diversity approaches the statistically optimal solution and significantly outperforms simple randomization strategies. Counter to popular belief, this deterministic strategy leverages fewer platforms than may be generally available, which increases system security.