CT-L: Collaborative Research: Comprehensive Application Analysis and Control

在试图保护现代计算机网络时，一个深刻而普遍的问题来自于这些网络所承载的令人眼花缭乱的应用程序范围。除非了解特定的应用程序，否则无法对其存在进行良好的监视和控制。然而，在过去的十年中，我们已经看到数百个应用程序的兴起和使用，其增长速度远远超过了安全从业者理解其单个操作和影响的能力。这项研究工作旨在促进对当今网络上运行的大量应用程序协议的普遍理解和控制。开发对这些协议的深入可见性，必然会产生新的功能，用于公开社区尚未充分理解的现代应用程序的内部工作原理。这种理解将提供实用的、高影响力的功能，因为运营商将能够直接将这些信息纳入他们的监测工作中。这项工作的一个关键目标是促进更广泛的网络研究社区能够一起工作，共同构建跨领域共享的应用分析资源。该项目设想了一种表达应用协议结构和语义的“通用语言”，通过提供一种表达广泛语义和分析的通用平台和语言来超越现状。虽然我们项目的重点是用于监视和保护网络的应用程序分析，但我们开发的工具通常可以重新用于支持其他网络问题，例如网络管理、故障排除和性能优化。

A deep, pervasive problem when attempting to secure modern computer networks arises from the bewildering range of applications that these networks carry.Unless a specific application is understood, its presence cannot be soundly monitored and controlled. Yet we have seen in the past decade the rise and use of many hundreds of applications, a growth far outpacing the ability of security practitioners to apprehend their individual operation and implications. This research effort aims to facilitate pervasive understanding and control of the wealth of application protocols running on today's networks. Developing in-depth visibility into these protocols will perforce lead to new capabilities for exposing the inner-workings of modern applications that have yet to be well understood within the community. Such understanding will provide pragmatic, high-impact functionality, since operators will be able to directly incorporate this information in their monitoring efforts.A key goal of the undertaking is to facilitate the means by which the broader network research community can work together to jointly construct application analysis resources that are shared across the field. The project envisions a "lingua franca" for expressing application protocol structure and semantics that moves beyond the status quo by providing a common platform and language for expressing a wide range of semantics and analyses. While the focus within our project is on application analysis for purposes of monitoring and securing networks, the tools we develop will often lend themselves to repurposing in support of other networking concerns such as network management, trouble-shooting, and performance optimization.