Distributed software applications are one of the most important applications currently used. Rising demand has led to a rapid increase in the number and complexity of distributed software applications. Such applications are also more vulnerable to different types of attacks due to their distributed nature. Detecting and addressing attacks is an open issue concerning distributed software applications. This paper proposes a new mechanism that uses blockchain technology to devise a security testing mechanism to detect attacks on distributed software applications. The proposed mechanism can detect several categories of attacks, such as denial-of-service attacks, malware and others. The process starts by creating a static blockchain (Blockchain Level 1) that stores the software application sequence obtained using software testing techniques. This sequence information exposes weaknesses in the application code. When the application is executed, a dynamic blockchain (Blockchain Level 2) helps create a static blockchain for recording the responses expected from the application. Every response should be validated using the proposed consensus mechanism associated with static and dynamic blockchains. Valid responses indicate the absence of attacks, while invalid responses denote attacks.

With the rapid increase of cyberattacks that presently affect distributed software systems, cyberattacks and their consequences have become critical issues and have attracted the interest of research communities and companies to address them. Therefore, developing and improving attack detection techniques are prominent methods to defend against cyberattacks. One of the promising attack detection methods is behaviour-based attack detection methods. Practically, attack detection techniques are widely applied in distributed software systems that utilise network environments. However, there are some other challenges facing attack detection techniques, such as the immutability and reliability of the detection systems. These challenges can be overcome with promising technologies such as blockchain. Blockchain offers a concrete solution for ensuring data integrity against unauthorised modification. Hence, it improves the immutability for detection systems’ data and thus the reliability for the target systems. In this paper, we propose a design for standalone behaviour-based attack detection techniques that utilise blockchain’s functionalities to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. Additionally, we provide a validation experiment to prove our proposal in term of achieving its objectives. We argue that our proposal introduces a novel approach to develop and improve behaviour-based attack detection techniques to become more reliable for distributed software systems.