3Alignment & prior art
Maneuver Calculus is framework-neutral. It does not replace the public threat-informed
frameworks; it sits among them and makes their relationships computable. Alignment is by
SKOS mapping — exactMatch, closeMatch,
relatedMatch — never by owl:equivalentClass, never by subclassing
into another taxonomy. Nothing in the calculus depends on any one framework's tree surviving
its next revision.
3.1Prior art
The calculus stands on public, non-vendor work. Each of the following contributes a piece the calculus adopts by name rather than reinvents:
dfiqId where a generated question matches a catalogued one.C0049 read process memory) that variants compose.3.2The integration matrix
Every correspondence below ships as a SKOS statement in the alignment graph, loaded separately from the core. The relation strength is exact where a term is adopted wholesale, close where the concepts nearly coincide, and related where the two draw a genuinely different cut.
| Maneuver Calculus | Framework | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robustness L1–L5 | StP Levels 1–5 | exact | the evasion-resistance scale, adopted directly |
| spanning / discriminating | StP D3 observable roles | exact | the grounding-driven role distinction |
| robustness level | Analytic Robustness Level | close | same axis, MC carries it on the observable |
Value-add — StP scores a level by hand; the calculus measures robustness empirically (convergent evolution, mutation survival) and consistency-checks the grade against the observable's grounding.
| Maneuver Calculus | Framework | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objectives | Tactics (TA0001 · TA0006 · TA0010 · TA0040) | exact | objectives correspond cleanly to tactics |
| Defense impairment | Defense Evasion (TA0005) | close | MC is the impair-defenses subset |
| Maneuver | Techniques | many-to-many, not 1:1 — a technique bundles an objective with an effect; the per-maneuver id is attackTechniqueId | |
| Implementation variant | Software | close | a variant is finer — one realization path of a core |
| Actor · Campaign | Groups · Campaigns | close | attribution layer |
| Maneuver Calculus | Framework | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defender maneuver | Defensive Technique | MC types a defense by (locus, function); D3FEND by a tactic/technique tree — a different cut | |
| Observable | Digital Artifact | epistemic (telemetry-visible) versus ontic (exists unobserved) — not equivalent | |
| counters | counters | close | MC also pins the (locus, function) cell of the counter |
| Investigation | Model tactic · analysis | belief-writing actions, distinct from prevent/detect/react | |
| Invariant core | Offensive Technique | the identity-bearing mechanism a defense is keyed against |
| Maneuver Calculus | Framework | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investigative question | Question | exact | the same unit — "what do we need to determine?" |
| dfiqId | DFIQ id | close | the instance-level bridge to a catalogued question |
| Investigation | Approach | one-to-many — many approaches answer one question | |
| answers | answersQuestion | close | the resolution relation |
Value-add — DFIQ is an authored catalogue; the calculus derives a question mechanically from a discriminating variable, the (role, variable) where surviving reconstruction hypotheses disagree, and binds to a catalogued id where the two coincide.
3.3What the calculus adds
The frameworks above name what a technique is, what a countermeasure is, and what a robustness level is. The calculus supplies the structure that connects them: the procedure altitude below the technique, where a maneuver is objective-rooted and identified by an invariant core; robustness derived-and-checked against grounding rather than scored by hand; observables kept epistemically distinct from the artifacts that produce them; a coverage verdict that is derived from telemetry sourcing and detectability health rather than asserted; and investigative questions generated from where the evidence disagrees. The alignment is the seam — the calculus is what holds across it.