Incorporation of Verifier Functionality in the Software for Operations and Network Attack Results Review and the Autonomous Penetration Testing System

TL;DR

This paper introduces verifiers into SONARR to dynamically check and update network facts, enhancing the accuracy and reliability of network attack reviews and autonomous penetration testing.

Contribution

It proposes a novel verifier system for SONARR that integrates real-world condition checks, enabling dynamic fact updates and improved consistency in network assessments.

Findings

Verifiers enable real-time fact updates from the environment.

Enhanced accuracy in attack results review.

Increased flexibility with script-based verifiers.

Abstract

The software for operations and network attack results review (SONARR) and the autonomous penetration testing system (APTS) use facts and common properties in digital twin networks to represent real-world entities. However, in some cases fact values will change regularly, making it difficult for objects in SONARR and APTS to consistently and accurately represent their real-world counterparts. This paper proposes and evaluates the addition of verifiers, which check real-world conditions and update network facts, to SONARR. This inclusion allows SONARR to retrieve fact values from its executing environment and update its network, providing a consistent method of ensuring that the operations and, therefore, the results align with the real-world systems being assessed. Verifiers allow arbitrary scripts and dynamic arguments to be added to normal SONARR operations. This provides a layer of flexibility and consistency that results in more reliable output from the software.