Universal Scoring Methodology (UHQS 4.2.2)

Status: Normative

The key words MUST, SHOULD, and MAY are interpreted as in RFC 2119. See Status of This Document.

Composite Score Formula

The Universal Honeypot Quality Score (UHQS) MUST be computed as a normalized value from 0 to 100:

\[ \mathrm{UHQS} = \delta_C \cdot (w_A \cdot S_A + w_B \cdot S_B + w_C \cdot S_C + w_E \cdot S_E + w_F \cdot S_F) \]

Symbol	Meaning
\(S_A, S_B, S_C, S_E, S_F\)	Normalized scores (0–100) for Modules A, B, C, E, and F
\(w_A, w_B, w_C, w_E, w_F\)	Dimension weights assigned by profile class
\(\delta_C\)	Safety Gate multiplier derived from Module D containment score \(C\)

Implementations MUST round the final UHQS to two decimal places (half-up / Python round semantics as used by the reference harness).

Note

Module D does not appear as a weighted term \(w_D \cdot S_D\). Its influence is entirely through \(\delta_C\).

Non-Linear Safety Gate (\(\delta_C\))

\[ \delta_C = \begin{cases} 1.0 & \text{if } C \ge 95 \\ \left(\dfrac{C}{100}\right)^{2} & \text{if } C < 95 \end{cases} \]

Module D Score (\(C\))	Multiplier \(\delta_C\)	Operational Impact
95 – 100	1.00	Pass: no score penalty
90	0.81	19% composite reduction
85	0.72	28% composite reduction
75	0.56	44% composite reduction
70	0.49	Fail: 51% reduction — a decoy with perfect deception can still fail evaluation
0	0.00	UHQS collapses to 0

Profile-Adaptive Weight Distributions

Weights MUST match the profile class declared in the TPS. All rows sum to 1.00.

Target Profile Category	Class enum	\(w_A\)	\(w_B\)	\(w_C\)	\(w_E\)	\(w_F\)
POSIX / Interactive Shells	POSIX-Shell	0.20	0.25	0.20	0.15	0.20
GenAI-augmented shells	GenAI-Shell	0.20	0.25	0.20	0.15	0.20
Low-Interaction Emulators	Low-Interaction	0.30	0.15	0.25	0.10	0.20
Industrial / OT / SCADA	ICS-SCADA	0.35	0.20	0.15	0.10	0.20
Web & Cloud APIs	Web-API	0.25	0.20	0.20	0.15	0.20
Database decoys	Database	0.25	0.25	0.20	0.10	0.20

Industrial/OT/SCADA profiles assign the highest protocol fidelity weight (0.35). GenAI-Shell MUST use the same weights as POSIX-Shell unless an accepted RFC changes that mapping.

Letter Grades (Normative Banding)

Implementations MUST map UHQS to letter grades as follows (aligned with the reference harness):

UHQS	Grade	Label
90 – 100	A	Enterprise Grade
80 – 89.99	B	Production Baseline
70 – 79.99	C	Conditional — not approved for production
50 – 69.99	D	Needs Remediation
< 50	F	Fail

Production Baseline Profile (RECOMMENDED)

It is RECOMMENDED that organizations treat UHQS > 80 with a passing Safety Gate (C ≥ 95) as the minimum gate before deploying active decoys to production networks. See Status of This Document.

Reference computation

These normative numbers MUST match uhbs score and uhbs_core.uhqs_math.compute_uhqs (CLI / MCP / harness wrappers).

Worked examples (anonymous module scores used in unit tests — not live product fixtures):

Class	Example scores	UHQS	Grade
Low-Interaction	A=23.5, B=42.5, C=57.0, D=100, E=55.0, F=69.0	46.97	F
POSIX-Shell	(see posix-shell-lab fixture path below)	80.33	B

Live published fixtures (evaluation proof only) are listed under Conformance — e.g. Cowrie full lab 61.37 / D, not 46.97.