A Stream-based Specification Language for Network Monitoring
Peter Faymonville, Bernd Finkbeiner, Sebastian Schirmer and Hazem Torfah
We introduce Lola2.0, a stream-based specification language for the precise description of complex security properties in network traffic. The language extends the specification language Lola with two new features: template stream expressions, which allow input data to be carried along the stream, and dynamic stream generation, where new monitors can be invoked during the monitoring process for the monitoring of new subtasks on their own time scale. Lola 2.0 is simple and expressive: it combines the ease-of-use of rule-based specification languages like Snort with the expressiveness of heavy-weight scripting languages or temporal logics previously needed for the description of complex stateful dependencies and statistical measures. Lola 2.0 specifications are monitored by incrementally constructing output streams from input streams, while maintaining a store of partially evaluated expressions. We demonstrate the flexibility and expressivity of Lola 2.0 using a prototype implementation on several practical examples.
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