12,029 research outputs found
Improving SIEM for critical SCADA water infrastructures using machine learning
Network Control Systems (NAC) have been used in many industrial processes. They aim to reduce the human factor burden and efficiently handle the complex process and communication of those systems. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are used in industrial, infrastructure and facility processes (e.g. manufacturing, fabrication, oil and water pipelines, building ventilation, etc.) Like other Internet of Things (IoT) implementations, SCADA systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, therefore, a robust anomaly detection is a major requirement. However, having an accurate anomaly detection system is not an easy task, due to the difficulty to differentiate between cyber-attacks and system internal failures (e.g. hardware failures). In this paper, we present a model that detects anomaly events in a water system controlled by SCADA. Six Machine Learning techniques have been used in building and evaluating the model. The model classifies different anomaly events including hardware failures (e.g. sensor failures), sabotage and cyber-attacks (e.g. DoS and Spoofing). Unlike other detection systems, our proposed work helps in accelerating the mitigation process by notifying the operator with additional information when an anomaly occurs. This additional information includes the probability and confidence level of event(s) occurring. The model is trained and tested using a real-world dataset
Source Code Verification for Embedded Systems using Prolog
System relevant embedded software needs to be reliable and, therefore, well
tested, especially for aerospace systems. A common technique to verify programs
is the analysis of their abstract syntax tree (AST). Tree structures can be
elegantly analyzed with the logic programming language Prolog. Moreover, Prolog
offers further advantages for a thorough analysis: On the one hand, it natively
provides versatile options to efficiently process tree or graph data
structures. On the other hand, Prolog's non-determinism and backtracking eases
tests of different variations of the program flow without big effort. A
rule-based approach with Prolog allows to characterize the verification goals
in a concise and declarative way.
In this paper, we describe our approach to verify the source code of a flash
file system with the help of Prolog. The flash file system is written in C++
and has been developed particularly for the use in satellites. We transform a
given abstract syntax tree of C++ source code into Prolog facts and derive the
call graph and the execution sequence (tree), which then are further tested
against verification goals. The different program flow branching due to control
structures is derived by backtracking as subtrees of the full execution
sequence. Finally, these subtrees are verified in Prolog.
We illustrate our approach with a case study, where we search for incorrect
applications of semaphores in embedded software using the real-time operating
system RODOS. We rely on computation tree logic (CTL) and have designed an
embedded domain specific language (DSL) in Prolog to express the verification
goals.Comment: In Proceedings WLP'15/'16/WFLP'16, arXiv:1701.0014
OnionBots: Subverting Privacy Infrastructure for Cyber Attacks
Over the last decade botnets survived by adopting a sequence of increasingly
sophisticated strategies to evade detection and take overs, and to monetize
their infrastructure. At the same time, the success of privacy infrastructures
such as Tor opened the door to illegal activities, including botnets,
ransomware, and a marketplace for drugs and contraband. We contend that the
next waves of botnets will extensively subvert privacy infrastructure and
cryptographic mechanisms. In this work we propose to preemptively investigate
the design and mitigation of such botnets. We first, introduce OnionBots, what
we believe will be the next generation of resilient, stealthy botnets.
OnionBots use privacy infrastructures for cyber attacks by completely
decoupling their operation from the infected host IP address and by carrying
traffic that does not leak information about its source, destination, and
nature. Such bots live symbiotically within the privacy infrastructures to
evade detection, measurement, scale estimation, observation, and in general all
IP-based current mitigation techniques. Furthermore, we show that with an
adequate self-healing network maintenance scheme, that is simple to implement,
OnionBots achieve a low diameter and a low degree and are robust to
partitioning under node deletions. We developed a mitigation technique, called
SOAP, that neutralizes the nodes of the basic OnionBots. We also outline and
discuss a set of techniques that can enable subsequent waves of Super
OnionBots. In light of the potential of such botnets, we believe that the
research community should proactively develop detection and mitigation methods
to thwart OnionBots, potentially making adjustments to privacy infrastructure.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
SCADA System Testbed for Cybersecurity Research Using Machine Learning Approach
This paper presents the development of a Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition (SCADA) system testbed used for cybersecurity research. The testbed
consists of a water storage tank's control system, which is a stage in the
process of water treatment and distribution. Sophisticated cyber-attacks were
conducted against the testbed. During the attacks, the network traffic was
captured, and features were extracted from the traffic to build a dataset for
training and testing different machine learning algorithms. Five traditional
machine learning algorithms were trained to detect the attacks: Random Forest,
Decision Tree, Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes and KNN. Then, the trained
machine learning models were built and deployed in the network, where new tests
were made using online network traffic. The performance obtained during the
training and testing of the machine learning models was compared to the
performance obtained during the online deployment of these models in the
network. The results show the efficiency of the machine learning models in
detecting the attacks in real time. The testbed provides a good understanding
of the effects and consequences of attacks on real SCADA environmentsComment: E-Preprin
Stealthy Deception Attacks Against SCADA Systems
SCADA protocols for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are vulnerable to
network attacks such as session hijacking. Hence, research focuses on network
anomaly detection based on meta--data (message sizes, timing, command
sequence), or on the state values of the physical process. In this work we
present a class of semantic network-based attacks against SCADA systems that
are undetectable by the above mentioned anomaly detection. After hijacking the
communication channels between the Human Machine Interface (HMI) and
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), our attacks cause the HMI to present a
fake view of the industrial process, deceiving the human operator into taking
manual actions. Our most advanced attack also manipulates the messages
generated by the operator's actions, reversing their semantic meaning while
causing the HMI to present a view that is consistent with the attempted human
actions. The attacks are totaly stealthy because the message sizes and timing,
the command sequences, and the data values of the ICS's state all remain
legitimate.
We implemented and tested several attack scenarios in the test lab of our
local electric company, against a real HMI and real PLCs, separated by a
commercial-grade firewall. We developed a real-time security assessment tool,
that can simultaneously manipulate the communication to multiple PLCs and cause
the HMI to display a coherent system--wide fake view. Our tool is configured
with message-manipulating rules written in an ICS Attack Markup Language (IAML)
we designed, which may be of independent interest. Our semantic attacks all
successfully fooled the operator and brought the system to states of blackout
and possible equipment damage
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