Protecting Mobile Agents against Malicious Host Attacks Using Threat Diagnostic AND/OR Tree

Threat diagnostic, using AND/OR tree and risk analysis, is a mechanism to protect mobile agents against malicious host attacks. The method is based on analyzing the probable causes of mobile agent failure to perform its intended function. It uses the symptoms of different types of malicious host attacks and arranges them in a logical order depending on the expected outcomes. We provide a methodical definition of attacks against mobile agents. This approach allows defining a protection scheme that is used to protect mobile agents. The objectives of this paper are twofold: Firstly, to provide information regarding the current methods of protecting mobile agents, Secondly, identify the different types of malicious hosts attacks based on their symptoms. Finally, we introduce our approach based on criticality analysis to identify the most critical type of attack and its associated expected failure cost.