PrimAITE/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[4.0.0] = TBC

Added

• Log observation space data by episode and step.
• Added show_history method to Agents, allowing you to view actions taken by an agent per step. By default, do-nothing actions are omitted.
• New node-send-local-command action implemented which grants agents the ability to execute commands locally. (Previously limited to remote only)
• Added ability to set the observation threshold for NMNE, file access and application executions

Changed

• Agents now follow a common configuration format, simplifying the configuration of agents and their extensibilty.
• Actions within PrimAITE are now extensible, allowing for plugin support.
• Added a config schema to ObservationManager, ActionManager, and RewardFunction.
• Streamlined the way agents are created from config
• Agent config no longer requires a dummy action space if the action space is empty, the same applies for observation space and reward function
• Actions now support a config schema, to allow yaml data validation and default parameter values
• Action parameters are no longer defined through IDs, instead meaningful data is provided directly in the action map
• Test and example YAMLs have been updated to match the new agent and action schemas, such as:
  • Removed empty action spaces, observation spaces, or reward spaces for agent which didn't use them
  • Relabeled action parameters to match the new action config schemas, and updated the values to no longer rely on indices
  • Removed action space options which were previously used for assigning meaning to action space IDs
• Updated tests that don't use YAMLs to still use the new action and agent schemas
• Nodes now use a config schema and are extensible, allowing for plugin support.
• Node tests have been updated to use the new node config schemas when not using YAML files.
• ACLs are no longer applied to layer-2 traffic.
• Random number seed values are recorded in simulation/seed.log if the seed is set in the config file or generate_seed_value is set to true.
• ARP .show() method will now include the port number associated with each entry.
• Added services_requires_scan and applications_requires_scan to agent observation space config to allow the agents to be able to see actual health states of services and applications without requiring scans (Default True, set to False to allow agents to see actual health state without scanning).
• Updated the Terminal class to provide response information when sending remote command execution.

Fixed

• DNS client no longer fails to check its cache if a DNS server address is missing.
• DNS client now correctly inherits the node's DNS address configuration setting.

[3.3.0] - 2024-09-04

Added

• Random Number Generator Seeding by specifying a random number seed in the config file.
• Implemented Terminal service class, providing a generic terminal simulation.
• Added User, UserManager and UserSessionManager to enable the creation of user accounts and login on Nodes.
• Added actions to establish SSH connections, send commands remotely and terminate SSH connections.
• Added actions to change users' passwords.
• Added a listen_on_ports set in the IOSoftware class to enable software listening on ports in addition to the main port they're assigned.
• Added two new red applications: C2Beacon and C2Server which aim to simulate malicious network infrastructure. Refer to the Command and Control Application Suite E2E Demonstration notebook for more information.
• Added reward calculation details to AgentHistoryItem.
• Added a new Privilege-Escalation-and Data-Loss-Example.ipynb notebook with a realistic cyber scenario focusing on internal privilege escalation and data loss through the manipulation of SSH access and Access Control Lists (ACLs).
• Added a new extensible NetworkNodeAdder class for convenient addition of sets of nodes based on a simplified config.

Changed

• File and folder observations can now be configured to always show the true health status, or require scanning like before.
• It's now possible to disable stickiness on reward components, meaning their value returns to 0 during timesteps where agent don't issue the corresponding action. Affects GreenAdminDatabaseUnreachablePenalty, WebpageUnavailablePenalty, WebServer404Penalty
• Node observations can now be configured to show the number of active local and remote logins.
• Ports and IP Protocols no longer use enums. They are defined in dictionary lookups and are handled by custom validation to enable extensibility with plugins.
• Changed AirSpaceFrequency to a data transfer object with a registry to allow extensibility
• Changed the Office LAN creation convenience function to follow the new NetworkNodeAdder pattern. Office LANs can now also be defined in YAML config.

Fixed

• Folder observations showing the true health state without scanning (the old behaviour can be reenabled via config)
• Updated SoftwareManager install and uninstall to handle all functionality that was being done at the install and uninstall methods in the Node class.
• Updated the receive_payload_from_session_manager method in SoftwareManager so that it now sends a copy of the payload to any software listening on the destination port of the Frame.
• Made the show method of Network show all node types, including ones registered at runtime

Removed

• Removed the install and uninstall methods in the Node class.

[3.2.0] - 2024-07-18

Added

• Action penalty is a reward component that applies a negative reward for doing any action other than DONOTHING
• Application configuration actions for RansomwareScript, DatabaseClient, and DoSBot applications
• Ability to configure how long it takes to apply the service fix action
• Terminal service using SSH
• Airspaces now track the amount of data being transmitted, viewable using the show_bandwidth_load method
• Tests to verify that airspace bandwidth is applied correctly and can be configured via YAML
• Agent logging for agents' internal decision logic
• Action masking in all PrimAITE environments

Changed

• Application registry was moved to the Application class and now updates automatically when Application is subclassed
• Databases can no longer respond to request while performing a backup
• Application install no longer accepts an ip_address parameter
• Application install action can now be used on all applications
• Actions have additional logic for checking validity
• Frame size attribute now includes both core size and payload size in bytes
• The speed attribute of NetworkInterface has been changed from int to float
• Tidied up CHANGELOG
• Enhanced AirSpace logic to block transmissions that would exceed the available capacity.
• Updated _can_transmit function in Link to account for current load and total bandwidth capacity, ensuring transmissions do not exceed limits.

Fixed

• Links and airspaces can no longer transmit data if this would exceed their bandwidth

[3.1.0] - 2024-06-25

Added

• Observations for traffic amounts on host network interfaces
• NMAP application network discovery, including ping scan and port scan
• NMAP actions
• Automated adding copyright notices to source files
• More file types
• show method to files
• model_dump methods to network enums to enable better logging

Changed

• Updated file system actions to stop failures when creating duplicate files
• Improved parsing of ACL add rule actions to make some parameters optional

Fixed

• Fixed database client uninstall failing due to persistent connections
• Fixed packet storm when pinging broadcast addresses

[3.0.0] - 2024-06-10

Added

• New simulation module
• Multi agent reinforcement learning support
• File system class to manage files and folders
• Software for nodes that can have its own behaviour
• Software classes to model FTP, Postgres databases, web traffic, NTP
• Much more detailed network simulation including packets, links, and network interfaces
• More node types: host, computer, server, router, switch, wireless router, and firewalls
• Network Hardware - NIC, SwitchPort, Node, and Link. Nodes have fundamental services like ARP, ICMP, and PCAP running them by default.
• Malicious network event detection
• New game module for managing agents
• ACL rule wildcard masking
• Network broadcasting
• Wireless transmission
• More detailed documentation
• Example jupyter notebooks to demonstrate new functionality
• More reward components
• Packet capture logs
• Node system logs
• Per-step full simulation state log
• Attack randomisation with respect to timing and attack source
• Ability to set log level via CLI
• Ability to vary the YAML configuration per-episode
• Developer CLI tools for enhanced debugging (with primaite dev-mode enable)
• show function to many simulation objects to inspect their current state

Changed

• Decoupled the environment from the simulation by adding the game interface layer
• Made agents share a common base class
• Added more actions
• Made all agents use CAOS actions, including red and green agents
• Reworked YAML configuration file schema
• Reworked the reward system to be component-based
• Changed agent logs to create a JSON output instead of CSV with more detailed action information
• Made observation space flattening optional
• Made all logging optional
• Agent actions now provide responses with a success code

Removed

• Legacy simulation modules
• Legacy training modules
• Tests for legacy code
• Hardcoded IERs and PoL, traffic generation is now handled by agents and software
• Inbuilt agent training scripts

[2.0.0] - 2023-07-26

Added

• Command Line Interface (CLI) for easy access and streamlined usage of PrimAITE.
• Application Directories to enable PrimAITE as a Python package with predefined directories for storage.
• Support for Ray Rllib, allowing training of PPO and A2C agents using Stable Baselines3 and Ray RLlib.
• Random Red Agent to train the blue agent against, with options for randomised Red Agent POL and IER.
• Repeatability of sessions through seed settings, and deterministic or stochastic evaluation options.
• Session loading to revisit previously run sessions for SB3 Agents.
• Agent Session Classes (AgentSessionABC and HardCodedAgentSessionABC) to standardise agent training with a common interface.
• Standardised Session Output in a structured format in the user's app sessions directory, providing four types of outputs: Session Metadata, Results, Diagrams, Trained agents.
• Configurable Observation Space managed by the ObservationHandler class for a more flexible observation space setup.
• Benchmarking of PrimAITE performance, showcasing session and step durations for reference.
• Documentation overhaul, including automatic API and test documentation with recursive Sphinx auto-summary, using the Furo theme for responsive light/dark theme, and enhanced navigation with sphinx-code-tabs and sphinx-copybutton.

Changed

• Action Space updated to discrete spaces, introducing a new ANY action space option for combined NODE and ACL actions.
• Improved Node attribute naming convention for consistency, now adhering to Pascal Case.
• Package Structure has been refactored for better build, distribution, and installation, with all source code now in the src/ directory, and the PRIMAITE Python package renamed to primaite to adhere to PEP-8 Package & Module Names.
• Docs and Tests now sit outside the src/ directory.
• Non-python files (example config files, Jupyter notebooks, etc.) now sit inside a */_package_data/ directory in their respective sub-packages.
• All dependencies are now defined in the pyproject.toml file.
• Introduced individual configuration for the number of episodes and time steps for training and evaluation sessions, with separate config values for each.
• Decoupled the lay down config file from the training config, allowing more flexibility in configuration management.
• Updated Transactions to only report pre-action observation, improving the CSV header and providing more human-readable descriptions for columns relating to observations.
• Changes to AccessControlList, where the acl dictionary is now a list to accommodate changes to ACL action space and positioning of ACLRules inside the list to signal their level of priority.

Fixed

• Various bug fixes, including Green IERs separation, correct clearing of links in the reference environment, and proper reward calculation.
• Logic to check if a node is OFF before executing actions on the node by the blue agent, preventing erroneous state changes.
• Improved functionality of Resetting a Node, adding "SHUTTING DOWN" and "BOOTING" operating states for more reliable reset commands.
• Corrected the order of actions in the Primaite env to ensure the blue agent uses the current state for decision-making.

[1.1.1] - 2023-06-27

Fixed

• Fixed bug whereby 'reference' environment links reach bandwidth capacity and are never cleared due to green & red IERs being applied to them. This bug had a knock-on effect that meant IERs were being blocked based on the full capacity of links on the reference environment which was not correct; they should only be based on the link capacity of the 'live' environment. This fix has been addressed by:
  • Implementing a reference copy of all green IERs (self.green_iers_reference).
  • Clearing the traffic on reference IERs at the same time as the live IERs.
  • Passing the green_iers_reference to the apply_iers function at the reference stage.
  • Passing the green_iers_reference as an additional argument to calculate_reward_function.
  • Updating the green IERs section of the calculate_reward_function to now take into account both the green reference IERs and live IERs. The green_ier_blocked reward is only applied if the IER is blocked in the live environment but is running in the reference environment.
  • Re-ordering the actions taken as part of the step function to ensure the blue action happens first before other changes.
  • Removing the unnecessary "Reapply PoL and IERs" action from the step function.
  • Moving the deep-copy of nodes and links to below the "Implement blue action" stage of the step function.

[1.1.0] - 2023-03-13

Added

• The user can now initiate either a TRAINING session or an EVALUATION (test) session with the Stable Baselines 3 (SB3) agents via the config_main.yaml file. During evaluation/testing, the agent policy will be fixed (no longer learning) and subjected to the SB3 evaluate_policy() function.
• The user can choose whether a saved agent is loaded into the session (with reference to a URL) via the config_main.yaml file. They specify a Boolean true/false indicating whether a saved agent should be loaded, and specify the URL and file name.
• Active and Service nodes now possess a new "File System State" attribute. This attribute is permitted to have the states GOOD, CORRUPT, DESTROYED, REPAIRING, and RESTORING. This new feature affects the following components:
  • Blue agent observation space;
  • Blue agent action space;
  • Reward function;
  • Node pattern-of-life.
• The Red Agent node pattern-of-life has been enhanced so that node PoL is triggered by an 'initiator'. The initiator is either DIRECT (state change is applied to the node without any conditions), IER (state change is applied to the node based on IER entry condition), or SERVICE (state change is applied to the node based on a service state condition on the same node or a different node within the network).
• New default config named "config_5_DATA_MANIPULATION.yaml" and associated Training Use Case Profile.
• NodeStateInstruction has been split into NodeStateInstructionGreen and NodeStateInstructionRed to reflect the changes within the red agent pattern-of-life capability.
• The reward function has been enhanced so that node attribute states of resetting, patching, repairing, and restarting contribute to the overall reward value.
• The User Guide has been updated to reflect all the above changes.

Changed

• "config_1_DDOS_BASIC.yaml" modified to make it more simplistic to aid evaluation testing.
• "config_2_DDOS_BASIC.yaml" updated to reflect the addition of the File System State and the Red Agent node pattern-of-life enhancement.
• "config_3_DOS_VERY_BASIC.yaml" updated to reflect the addition of the File System State and the Red Agent node pattern-of-life enhancement.
• "config_UNIT_TEST.yaml" is a copy of the new "config_5_DATA_MANIPULATION.yaml" file.
• Updates to Transactions.

Fixed

• Fixed "config_2_DDOS_BASIC.yaml" by adding another ACL rule to allow traffic to flow from Node 9 to Node 3. Previously, there was no rule, so one of the green IERs could not flow by default.