Adaptive distributed honeypot detection network for enhanced cybersecurity against DoS and DDoS attacks

• High precision detection across varied DoS attack types. • Scalable framework for dynamic, interactive network environments. • Integrated defense through distributed honeypots and adaptive mechanisms. • Superior performance surpassing baseline models in accuracy and positives. • Future-ready design addressing evolving cyber threats and scenarios. The increasing prevalence and sophistication of Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks present significant challenges in ensuring the security and stability of modern networked systems. These attacks, characterized by their ability to disrupt services and compromise resources, require innovative and robust detection mechanisms to safeguard highly interactive environments such as honeypot systems. Traditional detection techniques often fall short in addressing the complexities posed by dynamic traffic patterns, diverse attack types, and real-time processing demands. This study introduces the Adaptive Distributed Honeypot Detection Network (ADHDN), a novel framework that leverages deep learning and probabilistic modeling to address the limitations of existing solutions. ADHDN employs a combination of Deep Generative Adversarial Networks (DGANs) and Discrete Hidden Markov Models (DHMMs) to achieve superior detection precision across various DoS attack types, including application-level, protocol-level, and data volume attacks. Implemented in a highly interactive honeypot environment with distributed server and virtual machine configurations, ADHDN demonstrates remarkable adaptability and resilience. Performance evaluation using the IoTID20 dataset reveals that ADHDN consistently outperforms contemporary models, such as RBMD, BNDH, and AHDL. ADHDN achieves a true positive rate of 99.7% for protocol-level attacks, 99.4% for application-level attacks, and 97.5% for data volume attacks under low attack volumes, maintaining robust performance even as attack intensity scales. These results underscore ADHDN’s potential to redefine DoS detection in dynamic and high-interaction environments, offering a scalable and efficient solution to contemporary cybersecurity challenges.