HydraWall – A Regenerative Multi-Layer Adaptive AI Firewall System for Autonomous Cyber Defense

Conventional firewalls rely on static rule sets and signature-based intrusion detection, making them insufficient against modern, evolving cyber threats. HydraWall is a regenerative, multi-layer adaptive AI firewall system inspired by biological immune mechanisms. It autonomously regenerates and evolves its defensive layers when anomalies are detected, using lightweight AI reasoning (SLMs) and dynamic rule mutation to counter evolving threats. The system integrates anomaly detection, cryptographic key rotation, and self-healing rule regeneration to maintain continuous protection. This study presents the conceptual architecture, methodology, and feasibility analysis of HydraWall, demonstrating its potential to serve as a next-generation autonomous cyber defense framework for enterprise, IoT, and critical infrastructure networks.