Augmenting Cybersecurity: A Survey of Intrusion Detection Systems in Combating Zero-day Vulnerabilities

A zero-day vulnerability is a complimentary ticket to the attackers for gaining entry into the network. Thus, there is necessity to device appropriate threat detection systems and establish an innovative and safe solution that prevents unauthorised intrusions for defending various components of cybersecurity. We present a survey of recent Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) in detecting zero-day vulnerabilities based on the following dimensions: types of cyber-attacks, datasets used and kinds of network detection systems. Purpose: The study focuses on presenting an exhaustive review on the effectiveness of the recent IDS with respect to zero-day vulnerabilities. Methodology: Systematic exploration was done at the IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, RAID, ESCORICS, Google Scholar, and other relevant platforms of studies published in English between 2015 and 2021 using keywords and combinations of relevant terms. Findings: It is possible to train IDS for zero-day attacks. The existing IDS have strengths that make them capable of effective detection against zero-day attacks. However, they display certain limitations that reduce their credibility. Novel strategies like deep learning, machine learning, fuzzing technique, runtime verification technique, and Hidden Markov Models can be used to design IDS to detect malicious traffic. Implication: This paper explored and highlighted the advantages and limitations of existing IDS enabling the selection of best possible IDS to protect the system. Moreover, the comparison between signature-based and anomaly-based IDS exemplifies that one viable approach to accurately detect the zero-day vulnerabilities would be the integration of hybrid mechanism.