An analysis method of topological relations between Snort rules

It is difficult to knowall the relations between Snort rules. To deal with this problem, the topological relations between Snort rules are classified based on the set theory, and a method for calculating the topological relations between Snort rules is proposed. In the existing methods for analyzing the relations of Snort rules, the relations are usually determined only according to the header information of the Snort rules. Without considering the actions of Snort rules, the proposed method improves upon the existing methods and it can classify and calculate the topological relations between Snort rules according to both headers and options information of Snort rules. In addition, the proposed method is implemented by the functional language Haskell. The experimental results showthat the topological relations between Snort rules can be calculated rapidly and effectively. The proposed method also provides an important basis for conflict detection in the succeeding Snort rules.