Unveiling malicious DNS behavior profiling and generating benchmark dataset through application layer traffic analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a prime target for cyber attacks , necessitating the monitoring and analysis of DNS activities to detect malicious behaviors . This paper presents an innovative DNS behavioral profiling approach that addresses challenges posed by the dynamic landscape of cyber threats, encompassing issues like evasion tactics, content variability, discerning malicious intent , navigating URL obfuscation, low and slow tactics, and maintaining accuracy in the face of diverse normal behaviors, contributing to the advancement of robust threat detection. The framework leverages unique feature behaviors and correlations, incorporating a novel feature selection algorithm , pattern extraction methodology, and a robust neural network architecture for accurate profile construction. The research also includes the development of ALFlowLyzer, a custom application layer network flow analyzer, and introduces the BCCC-CIC-Bell-DNS-2024 dataset, addressing limitations in widely used public DNS datasets. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in profiling various DNS activities.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".