211 research outputs found
Danger is My Middle Name: Experimenting with SSL Vulnerabilities in Android Apps
This paper presents a measurement study of information leakage and SSL
vulnerabilities in popular Android apps. We perform static and dynamic analysis
on 100 apps, downloaded at least 10M times, that request full network access.
Our experiments show that, although prior work has drawn a lot of attention to
SSL implementations on mobile platforms, several popular apps (32/100) accept
all certificates and all hostnames, and four actually transmit sensitive data
unencrypted. We set up an experimental testbed simulating man-in-the-middle
attacks and find that many apps (up to 91% when the adversary has a certificate
installed on the victim's device) are vulnerable, allowing the attacker to
access sensitive information, including credentials, files, personal details,
and credit card numbers. Finally, we provide a few recommendations to app
developers and highlight several open research problems.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appears in the Proceedings of ACM
WiSec 2015. This is the full versio
On the road with third-party apps: Security analysis of an in-vehicle app platform
Digitalization has revolutionized the automotive industry. Modern cars are equipped with powerful Internetconnected infotainment systems, comparable to tablets and smartphones. Recently, several car manufacturers have announced the upcoming possibility to install third-party apps onto these infotainment systems. The prospect of running third-party code on a device that is integrated into a safety critical in-vehicle system raises serious concerns for safety, security, and user privacy. This paper investigates these concerns of in-vehicle apps. We focus on apps for the Android Automotive operating system which several car manufacturers have opted to use. While the architecture inherits much from regular Android, we scrutinize the adequateness of its security mechanisms with respect to the in-vehicle setting, particularly affecting road safety and user privacy. We investigate the attack surface and vulnerabilities for third-party in-vehicle apps. We analyze and suggest enhancements to such traditional Android mechanisms as app permissions and API control. Further, we investigate operating system support and how static and dynamic analysis can aid automatic vetting of in-vehicle apps. We develop AutoTame, a tool for vehicle-specific code analysis. We report on a case study of the countermeasures with a Spotify app using emulators and physical test beds from Volvo Cars
Mitigating real-time relay phishing attacks against mobile push notification based two-factor authentication systems
This paper explores how existing push notification based two-factor authentication systems are susceptible to real-time man-in-the-middle relay attacks and proposes a system for mitigating such attacks. A fully functional reference system of the proposed mitigation was built and compared to an existing push notification two-factor authentication system while undergoing a real-time man-in-the-middle relay attack. The reference systems used cloud infrastructure for hosting, an Apple iPhone as the notification receiver, and Apple’s push notification service to send notifications. A publicly available tool for conducting real-time man-in-the-middle relay attacks was used to conduct the attacks. The results of the tests were recorded and contrasted to show how existing implementations fail to identify such attacks and how the proposed system could. It is recommended that the existing push notification two-factor authentication providers implement additional measures to protect users against real-time man-in-the-middle relay attacks while appropriately weighing key usability issues. While the proposed mitigation system is shown to prevent such attacks, it has usability drawbacks that should be considered
From Understanding Telephone Scams to Implementing Authenticated Caller ID Transmission
abstract: The telephone network is used by almost every person in the modern world. With the rise of Internet access to the PSTN, the telephone network today is rife with telephone spam and scams. Spam calls are significant annoyances for telephone users, unlike email spam, spam calls demand immediate attention. They are not only significant annoyances but also result in significant financial losses in the economy. According to complaint data from the FTC, complaints on illegal calls have made record numbers in recent years. Americans lose billions to fraud due to malicious telephone communication, despite various efforts to subdue telephone spam, scam, and robocalls.
In this dissertation, a study of what causes the users to fall victim to telephone scams is presented, and it demonstrates that impersonation is at the heart of the problem. Most solutions today primarily rely on gathering offending caller IDs, however, they do not work effectively when the caller ID has been spoofed. Due to a lack of authentication in the PSTN caller ID transmission scheme, fraudsters can manipulate the caller ID to impersonate a trusted entity and further a variety of scams. To provide a solution to this fundamental problem, a novel architecture and method to authenticate the transmission of the caller ID is proposed. The solution enables the possibility of a security indicator which can provide an early warning to help users stay vigilant against telephone impersonation scams, as well as provide a foundation for existing and future defenses to stop unwanted telephone communication based on the caller ID information.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201
Identity Management and Authorization Infrastructure in Secure Mobile Access to Electronic Health Records
We live in an age of the mobile paradigm of anytime/anywhere access, as the mobile device
is the most ubiquitous device that people now hold. Due to their portability, availability, easy
of use, communication, access and sharing of information within various domains and areas of
our daily lives, the acceptance and adoption of these devices is still growing. However, due to
their potential and raising numbers, mobile devices are a growing target for attackers and, like
other technologies, mobile applications are still vulnerable.
Health information systems are composed with tools and software to collect, manage, analyze
and process medical information (such as electronic health records and personal health records).
Therefore, such systems can empower the performance and maintenance of health services,
promoting availability, readability, accessibility and data sharing of vital information about a
patients overall medical history, between geographic fragmented health services. Quick access
to information presents a great importance in the health sector, as it accelerates work processes,
resulting in better time utilization. Additionally, it may increase the quality of care.
However health information systems store and manage highly sensitive data, which raises serious
concerns regarding patients privacy and safety, and may explain the still increasing number
of malicious incidents reports within the health domain.
Data related to health information systems are highly sensitive and subject to severe legal
and regulatory restrictions, that aim to protect the individual rights and privacy of patients.
Along side with these legislations, security requirements must be analyzed and measures implemented.
Within the necessary security requirements to access health data, secure authentication,
identity management and access control are essential to provide adequate means to
protect data from unauthorized accesses. However, besides the use of simple authentication
models, traditional access control models are commonly based on predefined access policies
and roles, and are inflexible. This results in uniform access control decisions through people,
different type of devices, environments and situational conditions, and across enterprises, location
and time.
Although already existent models allow to ensure the needs of the health care systems, they still
lack components for dynamicity and privacy protection, which leads to not have desire levels
of security and to the patient not to have a full and easy control of his privacy. Within this
master thesis, after a deep research and review of the stat of art, was published a novel dynamic
access control model, Socio-Technical Risk-Adaptable Access Control modEl (SoTRAACE),
which can model the inherent differences and security requirements that are present in this
thesis. To do this, SoTRAACE aggregates attributes from various domains to help performing
a risk assessment at the moment of the request. The assessment of the risk factors identified
in this work is based in a Delphi Study. A set of security experts from various domains were
selected, to classify the impact in the risk assessment of each attribute that SoTRAACE aggregates.
SoTRAACE was integrated in an architecture with requirements well-founded, and based
in the best recommendations and standards (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), as well based in
deep review of the state-of-art. The architecture is further targeted with the essential security
analysis and the threat model. As proof of concept, the proposed access control model was implemented within the user-centric
architecture, with two mobile prototypes for several types of accesses by patients and healthcare
professionals, as well the web servers that handles the access requests, authentication and
identity management.
The proof of concept shows that the model works as expected, with transparency, assuring privacy
and data control to the user without impact for user experience and interaction. It is clear
that the model can be extended to other industry domains, and new levels of risks or attributes
can be added because it is modular. The architecture also works as expected, assuring secure
authentication with multifactor, and secure data share/access based in SoTRAACE decisions.
The communication channel that SoTRAACE uses was also protected with a digital certificate.
At last, the architecture was tested within different Android versions, tested with static and
dynamic analysis and with tests with security tools.
Future work includes the integration of health data standards and evaluating the proposed system
by collecting users’ opinion after releasing the system to real world.Hoje em dia vivemos em um paradigma móvel de acesso em qualquer lugar/hora, sendo que
os dispositivos móveis são a tecnologia mais presente no dia a dia da sociedade. Devido à sua
portabilidade, disponibilidade, fácil manuseamento, poder de comunicação, acesso e partilha
de informação referentes a várias áreas e domínios das nossas vidas, a aceitação e integração
destes dispositivos é cada vez maior. No entanto, devido ao seu potencial e aumento do número
de utilizadores, os dispositivos móveis são cada vez mais alvos de ataques, e tal como outras
tecnologias, aplicações móveis continuam a ser vulneráveis.
Sistemas de informação de saúde são compostos por ferramentas e softwares que permitem
recolher, administrar, analisar e processar informação médica (tais como documentos de saúde
eletrónicos). Portanto, tais sistemas podem potencializar a performance e a manutenção dos
serviços de saúde, promovendo assim a disponibilidade, acessibilidade e a partilha de dados
vitais referentes ao registro médico geral dos pacientes, entre serviços e instituições que estão
geograficamente fragmentadas. O rápido acesso a informações médicas apresenta uma grande
importância para o setor da saúde, dado que acelera os processos de trabalho, resultando assim
numa melhor eficiência na utilização do tempo e recursos. Consequentemente haverá uma
melhor qualidade de tratamento. Porém os sistemas de informação de saúde armazenam e
manuseiam dados bastantes sensíveis, o que levanta sérias preocupações referentes à privacidade
e segurança do paciente. Assim se explica o aumento de incidentes maliciosos dentro do
domínio da saúde.
Os dados de saúde são altamente sensíveis e são sujeitos a severas leis e restrições regulamentares,
que pretendem assegurar a proteção dos direitos e privacidade dos pacientes, salvaguardando
os seus dados de saúde. Juntamente com estas legislações, requerimentos de segurança
devem ser analisados e medidas implementadas. Dentro dos requerimentos necessários
para aceder aos dados de saúde, uma autenticação segura, gestão de identidade e controlos de
acesso são essenciais para fornecer meios adequados para a proteção de dados contra acessos
não autorizados. No entanto, além do uso de modelos simples de autenticação, os modelos
tradicionais de controlo de acesso são normalmente baseados em políticas de acesso e cargos
pré-definidos, e são inflexíveis. Isto resulta em decisões de controlo de acesso uniformes para
diferentes pessoas, tipos de dispositivo, ambientes e condições situacionais, empresas, localizações
e diferentes alturas no tempo. Apesar dos modelos existentes permitirem assegurar
algumas necessidades dos sistemas de saúde, ainda há escassez de componentes para accesso
dinâmico e proteção de privacidade , o que resultam em níveis de segurança não satisfatórios e
em o paciente não ter controlo directo e total sobre a sua privacidade e documentos de saúde.
Dentro desta tese de mestrado, depois da investigação e revisão intensiva do estado da arte,
foi publicado um modelo inovador de controlo de acesso, chamado SoTRAACE, que molda as
diferenças de acesso inerentes e requerimentos de segurança presentes nesta tese. Para isto,
o SoTRAACE agrega atributos de vários ambientes e domínios que ajudam a executar uma avaliação
de riscos, no momento em que os dados são requisitados. A avaliação dos fatores de risco
identificados neste trabalho são baseados num estudo de Delphi. Um conjunto de peritos de
segurança de vários domínios industriais foram selecionados, para classificar o impacto de cada
atributo que o SoTRAACE agrega. O SoTRAACE foi integrado numa arquitectura para acesso a
dados médicos, com requerimentos bem fundados, baseados nas melhores normas e recomendações (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), e em revisões intensivas do estado da arte. Esta
arquitectura é posteriormente alvo de uma análise de segurança e modelos de ataque.
Como prova deste conceito, o modelo de controlo de acesso proposto é implementado juntamente
com uma arquitetura focada no utilizador, com dois protótipos para aplicações móveis,
que providênciam vários tipos de acesso de pacientes e profissionais de saúde. A arquitetura é
constituída também por servidores web que tratam da gestão de dados, controlo de acesso e
autenticação e gestão de identidade. O resultado final mostra que o modelo funciona como esperado,
com transparência, assegurando a privacidade e o controlo de dados para o utilizador,
sem ter impacto na sua interação e experiência. Consequentemente este modelo pode-se extender
para outros setores industriais, e novos níveis de risco ou atributos podem ser adicionados
a este mesmo, por ser modular. A arquitetura também funciona como esperado, assegurando
uma autenticação segura com multi-fator, acesso e partilha de dados segura baseado em decisões
do SoTRAACE. O canal de comunicação que o SoTRAACE usa foi também protegido com
um certificado digital.
A arquitectura foi testada em diferentes versões de Android, e foi alvo de análise estática,
dinâmica e testes com ferramentas de segurança.
Para trabalho futuro está planeado a integração de normas de dados de saúde e a avaliação do
sistema proposto, através da recolha de opiniões de utilizadores no mundo real
Security Analysis of Web and Embedded Applications
As we put more trust in the computer systems we use the need for securityis increasing. And while security features like HTTPS are becomingcommonplace on the web, securing applications remains dicult. This thesisfocuses on analyzing dierent computer ecosystems to detect vulnerabilitiesand develop countermeasures. This includesweb browsers,web applications,and cyber-physical systems such as Android Automotive.For web browsers, we analyze how new security features might solve aproblem but introduce new ones. We show this by performing a systematicanalysis of the new Content Security Policy (CSP) directive navigate-to.In our research, we nd that it does introduce new vulnerabilities, to whichwe recommend countermeasures. We also create AutoNav, a tool capable ofautomatically suggesting navigation policies for this directive.To improve the security of web applications, we develop a novel blackboxmethod by combining the strengths of dierent black-box methods. Weimplement this in our scanner Black Widow, which we compare with otherleading web application scanners. Black Widow both improves the coverageof the web application and nds more vulnerabilities, including ones inPrestashop, WordPress, and HotCRP.For embedded systems,We analyze the new attack vectors introduced bycombining a phone OS with vehicle APIs and nd new attacks pertaining tosafety, privacy, and availability. Furthermore, we create AutoTame, which isdesigned to analyze third-party apps for vehicles for the vulnerabilities wefound
AndroSAT: Security Analysis Tool for Android Applications
ABSTRACT
AndroSAT: Security Analysis Tool for Android Applications
With about 1.5 million Android device activations per day and billions of applications installation from Google Play, Android is becoming one of the most widely used operating systems for smartphones and tablets.
Besides typical personal usages, Android mobile devices are also being integrated into enterprises, government organizations, and military networks. Consequently, these devices hold valuable sensitive information which makes them face the same level of malicious attacks that have targeted the desktop environments over the past three decades.
In this thesis, we present AndroSAT, a Security Analysis Tool for Android applications. The developed framework allows us to efficiently experiment with different security aspects of Android apps through the integration of (i) a static analysis module that scans Android apps for malicious patterns. The static analysis process involves several steps such as n-gram analysis of dex files, de-compilation of the app, pattern search, and analysis of the AndroidManifest file; (ii) a dynamic analysis sandbox that executes Android apps in a controlled virtual environment which logs low-level interactions with the operating system.
The effectiveness of the developed framework is confirmed by testing it on popular apps collected from F-Droid, and malware samples obtained from a third party and the Android Malware Genome Project dataset. As a case study, we show how the analysis reports obtained from AndroSAT can be used for studying the frequency of use of different Android permissions and dynamic operations and detection of Android malware
- …