CAREER: Web Evolution and Emerging Threats

网络是我们这个时代最重要的技术平台之一，有数十亿用户和成千上万的企业依赖于它。它在浏览器和不断变化的网站之间奇妙的相互作用中迅速发展。这吸引了一些不法分子，他们通过损害网络用户和企业的隐私和安全，滥用这个平台来谋取自己的经济利益。到目前为止，研究人员研究网络的方式与用户浏览网络的方式是脱节的，因为浏览器并不是用来监控的工具。研究人员要么建立临时解决方案，要么使用来自浏览器的高级信息，这些信息不足以识别一些最先进的网络攻击。本研究的目的是为现代网络开发一个新的监测平台，并从一个新的角度评估当前和正在出现的威胁。本研究的具体目标是开发1)一种监控现代浏览器的新方法，以及当用户访问web时它们如何与页面交互；2)构建抽象模型来表征现代web应用程序的行为；3)利用这些行为模型来识别网络上当前和新出现的威胁。此外，该项目将有一个公开的门户网站，用于网站行为的交互式分析。这将允许任何研究人员、网络开发人员或网络用户了解他们访问网站时使用的浏览器特性。总之，这项研究旨在通过开发一个监控平台，揭示现代浏览器和网站的内部工作原理，为研究日益复杂的网络构建基本模块。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The web is one of the most important technology platforms of our time with billions of users and thousands of businesses depending on it. It evolves rapidly in a fantastic interplay between browsers and websites that change constantly. This has attracted miscreants who abuse the platform to their own financial benefit by compromising the privacy and security of web users and businesses. The way that researchers study the web so far is disconnected from how users browse the web, as browsers are not meant to be monitoring tools. Researchers build either ad-hoc solutions or use high-level information from the browser that is inadequate to identify some of the most advanced web attacks. The objective of this research is to develop a new monitoring platform for the modern web and assess current and emerging threats from a new perspective.The specific aims of this research are to develop 1) a new approach of monitoring modern browsers and how they interact with pages when users visit the web 2) build abstract models that characterize the behavior of modern web applications and 3) leverage these behavior models to identify current and emerging threats on the web. In addition, the project will have a publicly available portal for interactive analysis of website behavior. This will allow any researcher, web developer or web user to understand what browser features are used when they visit a website. In summary, this research aims at building the fundamental blocks for studying an increasingly complex web by developing a monitoring platform that sheds light into the inner workings of modern browsers and websites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.