A Consensus-Bayesian Framework for Detecting Malicious Activity in Enterprise Directory Access Graphs

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Authors: Pratyush Kiran Uppuluri, Shilpa Noushad, Sajan Kumar
Cited by: 0

Abstract

This work presents a consensus-based Bayesian framework to detect malicious user behavior in enterprise directory access graphs. By modeling directories as topics and users as agents within a multi-level interaction graph, we simulate access evolution using influence-weighted opinion dynamics. Logical dependencies between users are encoded in dynamic matrices Ci, and directory similarity is captured via a shared influence matrix W. Malicious behavior is injected as cross-component logical perturbations that violate structural norms of strongly connected components(SCCs). We apply theoretical guarantees from opinion dynamics literature to determine topic convergence and detect anomaly via scaled opinion variance. To quantify uncertainty, we introduce a Bayesian anomaly scoring mechanism that evolves over time, using both static and online priors. Simulations over synthetic access graphs validate our method, demonstrating its sensitivity to logical inconsistencies and robustness under dynamic perturbation.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Access Control and Trust Network Security and Intrusion Detection Anomaly Detection Techniques and Applications

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
3 February 2026
Document type
Preprint