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

当试图保护现代计算机网络安全时，这些网络承载的令人困惑的各种应用程序产生了一个深层次的普遍问题。除非了解特定的应用程序，否则无法对其存在进行合理的监视和控制。然而，在过去十年中，我们看到数以百计的应用程序的增长和使用，这一增长速度远远超过了安全从业者理解其个别操作和影响的能力。这项研究工作旨在促进对当今网络上运行的丰富的应用协议的普遍理解和控制。开发对这些协议的深入了解将不可避免地带来新的功能，用于公开社区内尚未很好理解的现代应用程序的内部工作原理。这样的理解将提供务实、高影响力的功能，因为运营商将能够将这些信息直接纳入他们的监控工作中。该承诺的一个关键目标是促进更广泛的网络研究社区能够共同构建跨领域共享的应用分析资源的方法。该项目设想了一种用于表达应用程序协议结构和语义的“通用语言”，通过提供一个通用平台和语言来表达广泛的语义和分析，从而超越现状。虽然我们项目中的重点是用于监控和保护网络的应用程序分析，但我们开发的工具通常会重新调整用途，以支持其他网络问题，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.