Deriving a closed-form expression for worm-scanning strategies
Zesheng Chen, Chao Chen, Yubin Li · International Journal of Security and Networks · 2009
This work presents a closed-form expression for characterising the spread of a class of worm-scanning strategies through a mean-field approximation. This expression can both accurately capture the worm propagation speed before the number of infections becomes large and explicitly demonstrate the effects of important parameters such as the vulnerable-host distribution and the worm-scanning strategy. Experimental results verify that the closed-form expression can accurately reflect the mean value of infections over time before the infected hosts become saturated for a wide range of scanning methods including static worm-scanning strategies and self-learning worms.