# An End-to-End Framework for Functionality-Embedded Provenance Graph Construction and Threat Interpretation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17100 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.17100/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 40 of its 66 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

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- [Large Language Models for Code Analysis: Do LLMs Really Do Their Job?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12357/) (2023)
- [LLMParser: An Exploratory Study on Using Large Language Models for Log Parsing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18001/) (2024)
- [Kairos: Practical Intrusion Detection and Investigation using Whole-system Provenance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05034/) (2023)
- [Log Parsing with Prompt-based Few-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07435/) (2023)
- [CheatAgent: Attacking LLM-Empowered Recommender Systems via LLM Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13192/) (2025)
- [Leveraging Large Language Models for Node Generation in Few-Shot Learning on Text-Attributed Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09872/) (2023)
- [MAGIC: Detecting Advanced Persistent Threats via Masked Graph Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09831/) (2023)
- [LogParser-LLM: Advancing Efficient Log Parsing with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.13727/) (2024)
- [An Adjustable Farthest Point Sampling Method for Approximately-sorted Point Cloud Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.08795/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Provenance graphs model causal system-level interactions from logs, enabling anomaly detectors to learn normal behavior and detect deviations as attacks. However, existing approaches rely on brittle, manually engineered rules to build provenance graphs, lack functional context for system entities, and provide limited support for analyst investigation. We present Auto-Prov, an adaptive, end-to-end framework that leverages large language models (LLMs) to automatically construct provenance graphs from heterogeneous and evolving logs, embed system-level functional attributes into the graph, enable provenance graph-based anomaly detectors to learn from these enriched graphs, and summarize the detected attacks to assist an analyst's investigation. Auto-Prov clusters unseen log types and efficiently extracts provenance edges and entity-level information via automatically generated rules. It further infers system-level functional context for both known and previously unseen system entities using a combination of LLM inference and behavior-based estimation. Attacks detected by provenance-graph-based anomaly detectors trained on Auto-Prov's graphs are then summarized into natural-language text. We evaluate Auto-Prov with four state-of-the-art provenance graph-based detectors across diverse logs. Results show that Auto-Prov consistently enhances detection performance, generalizes across heterogeneous log formats, and produces stable, interpretable attack summaries that remain robust under system evolution.