Papers for

enterprise security teams

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Java tool prevents unauthorized database access by rewriting SQL commands

IDORacle: Template-Guided SQL-Sink Mediation for Object-Level Authorization in Java Applications

Abstract: Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR), often modeled as Broken Object-Level Authorization (BOLA), remains prevalent in Java database applications because identity and authorization checks at the controller or service layer are disconnected from SQL execution based on resource identifiers. Existing work largely detects these vulnerabilities but offers limited low-intrusion runtime protection for legacy Java-SQL applications. We present IDORacle, a template-guided SQL-sink interception and rewriting framework for preventing horizontal privilege escalation at runtime. IDORacle propagates authenticated identity context across HTTP requests, asynchronous tasks, and data-access boundaries through a server-side trace identifier. At the MyBatis/JDBC boundary, it extracts SQL templates, computes dual fingerprints, and performs one-time template analysis to generate reusable mediation plans. During execution, it combines subject context, SQL ASTs, table metadata, and cached authorization proofs to permit, rewrite, or block operations. Its guard model supports direct ownership predicates, join-derived ownership, probes for group-owned resources, role-sensitive state transitions, and sensitive-column mediation. A Java-SQL benchmark grounded in real-world CVE reports shows that IDORacle prevents the tested horizontal authorization violations with a worst-case guard latency of 0.17 ms. Redundancy-aware optimization reduces average per-instance overhead by more than 90%, to 0.017 ms for hot SQL templates.

Fri 11 SeptCryptography and Security
The gist
Web applications often make mistakes that let users access data they shouldn't see, a problem known as broken object-level authorization. The authors created IDORacle, a tool that watches and changes database commands on the fly to stop users from accessing data they don’t own or shouldn’t see. It tracks who is making requests and checks the data queries to allow, rewrite, or block them as needed. This helps keep Java applications safer without needing big changes to existing code.
Open 2609.12426v1

BlueSTAR architecture speeds up and improves autonomous cyber defense

BlueSTAR: Tiered Agentic Architecture for Autonomous Cyber Defense

Abstract: Cyber attacks are increasingly automated, narrowing the time available for human analysts to detect, reason about, and respond to intrusions. Large language models (LLMs) offer a promising foundation for autonomous cyber defense because they can correlate heterogeneous evidence and reason about previously unseen threats. However, directly applying LLMs to operational security telemetry is impractical: raw logs arrive faster than current models can process them, individual events are often ambiguous, and unconstrained LLM actions can introduce significant operational risk. We present BlueSTAR, a tiered agentic architecture for autonomous cyber defense in enterprise IT/OT networks. BlueSTAR first transforms high-volume security telemetry into compact indicators of compromise. We further introduce a resilience metric that jointly captures attacker reach, impact on mission-critical assets, and disruption caused by defensive actions. We evaluate BlueSTAR on two live enterprise IT/OT cyber ranges using seven attack chains based on real-world intrusion techniques. Across attack chains, BlueSTAR retains the fast containment of deterministic response for known threats while successfully defending against attacks requiring contextual and cross-cycle reasoning, including credential theft, repeated compromise, concurrent attackers, and attacks against physical processes.

Thu 10 SeptCryptography and Security
The gist
Cyber attacks are happening faster and more automatically, leaving little time for humans to react. The authors designed BlueSTAR, a system that quickly turns lots of security logs into simple warning signs, letting it detect and stop attacks faster. BlueSTAR also measures how well it stops hackers, balancing damage and defense effects. When tested in realistic network setups, it matched quick defenses against known attacks and succeeded in harder cases needing deeper reasoning.
Open 2609.11852v1

Session attestation secures tls connections without changing applications

Session Attestation for Unmodified TLS Services in Confidential Virtual Machines

Abstract: Confidential virtual machines simplify the migration of existing services into trusted execution environments, yet attesting their network connections often requires changing applications, TLS implementations, or certificates. We present SessionLatch, which provides session attestation while preserving all three. The key insight is that a trusted observation of the server's locally generated ephemeral public key, combined with standard TLS key confirmation, establishes the TEE endpoint guarantee without accessing TLS secrets. This moves attestation integration to the operating system: a temporary latch holds client encrypted records while evidence exchange overlaps the application TLS handshake, then removes itself after verification. The resulting connection retains enterprise service authentication and the native TLS data path, with no additional payload encryption. Mutual attestation uses the same construction and overlaps evidence generation at both endpoints. We implement Linux andWindowsintegrationandevaluaterealHygonCSVattestation. SessionLatch reduces short-upload mean latency by 63.1%/23.0% relative to TNG in interleaved Linux/Windows experiments. These results show that session attestation can strengthen existing confidential services without making a permanent proxy part of their data path.

Wed 9 SeptCryptography and Security
The gist
Confidential virtual machines help protect sensitive data but making sure network connections inside them are secure usually means changing apps or encryption methods. The authors developed SessionLatch, which lets you verify secure connections without changing the apps, TLS libraries, or certificates. It does this by observing a special key the server creates, then checking it in a way that doesn’t need secret info. This approach fits into the operating system and keeps the normal data flow of the connection, making it simpler to add extra security.
Open 2609.09668v1

Machine learning predicts risk levels in enterprise X.509 certificates

X-amine509: Predicting the Practical Risk Level of Enterprise X.509 Certificates

Abstract: Enterprises managing large X.509 certificate inventories face a prioritization problem: deterministic analysis tools that precisely identify standards violations are indispensable for remediation, but applying them exhaustively across millions of certificates is operationally impractical. We present X-amine509, a two-stage triage system that uses machine learning to rapidly rank certificates by predicted risk and route only the highest-risk items to full deterministic analysis. Certificate risk is quantified as a composite score derived from 177 defect checks grounded in CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements, NIST IR 8547/SP 800-57, and cryptographic strength criteria, weighted by security severity across four tiers ranging from cryptographic breaks to minor compliance deviations. We collected 1,027,714 X.509 certificates from Fortune 500, .gov, and .edu domains and scored each using this rubric. On a held-out test set of 201,976 certificates, our best model (Extra Trees) achieves $R^2$ of 0.993 with MAE of 2.26, while Decision Tree scores $R^2$ of 0.986 at 3.7 million certificates per second on a single machine. Ranking quality confirms the triage value: aggregate NDCG exceeds 0.997, and severity-tier classification reports 99.76% accuracy with 98.90% recall on critical-tier defects. Thirteen months later, we retrieved another 571,374 certificates to test our models' durability over time, and the Extra Trees and Decision Tree models maintain MAE below 6.8, $R^2$ of at least 0.915, aggregate NDCG above 0.988, severity-tier accuracy of at least 99.52%, and critical-tier recall of at least 97.03%. Feature importance analysis identifies validity period, Extended Key Usage configuration, negative serial number encoding, and self-signed status as the strongest risk predictors, providing coarse interpretability at the triage stage.

Tue 8 SeptCryptography and SecurityMachine Learning
The gist
Managing millions of security certificates is hard because checking each one carefully takes too long. The authors created a two-step system that quickly estimates which certificates are risky using machine learning, so only the riskiest get a full detailed check. Their method scores certificates based on many security rules and shows very accurate results, even when tested over a year later. The system also highlights which certificate features matter most for risk, helping teams understand its decisions.
Open 2609.09402v1