Automated Security Analysis of Virtualized Infrastructures

Virtualization enables the increasing efficiency and elasticity of modern IT infrastructures, including Infrastructure as a Service. However, the operational complexity of virtualized infrastructures is high, due to their dynamics, multi-tenancy, and size. Misconfigurations and insider attacks carry significant operational and security risks, such as breaches in tenant isolation, which put both the infrastructure provider and tenants at risk. In this thesis we study the question if it is possible to model and analyze complex, scalable, and dynamic virtualized infrastructures with regard to user-defined security and operational policies in an automated way. We establish a new practical and automated security analysis framework for virtualized infrastructures. First, we propose a novel tool that automatically extracts the configuration of heterogeneous environments and builds up a unified graph model of the configuration and topology. The tool is further extended with a monitoring component and a set of algorithms that translates system changes to graph model changes. The benefits of maintaining such a dynamic model are time reduction for model population and closing the gap for transient security violations. Our analysis is the first that lifts static information flow analysis to the entire virtualized infrastructure, in order to detect isolation failures between tenants on all resources. The analysis is configurable using customized rules to reflect the different trust assumptions of the users. We apply and evaluate our analysis system on the production infrastructure of a global financial institution. For the information flow analysis of dynamic infrastructures we propose the concept of dynamic rule-based information flow graphs and develop a set of algorithms that maintain such information flow graphs for dynamic system models. We generalize the analysis of isolation properties and establish a new generic analysis platform for virtualized infrastructures that allows to express a diverse set of security and operational policies in a formal language. The policy requirements are studied in a case-study with a cloud service provider. We are the first to employ a variety of theorem provers and model checkers to verify the state of a virtualized infrastructure against its policies. Additionally, we analyze dynamic behavior such as VM migrations. For the analysis of dynamic infrastructures we pursue both a reactive as well as a proactive approach. A reactive analysis system is developed that reduces the time between system change and analysis result. The system monitors the infrastructure for changes and employs dynamic information flow graphs to verify, for instance, tenant isolation. For the proactive analysis we propose a new model, the Operations Transition Model, which captures the changes of operations in the virtualized infrastructure as graph transformations. We build a novel analysis system using this model that performs automated run-time analysis of operations and also offers change planning. The operations transition model forms the basis for further research in model checking of virtualized infrastructures

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results

Automated Verification of Virtualized Infrastructures

Virtualized infrastructures and clouds present new challenges for security analysis and formal verification: they are complex environments that continuously change their shape, and that give rise to non-trivial security goals such as isolation and failure resilience requirements. We present a platform that connects declarative and expressive description languages with state-of-the art verification methods. The languages integrate homogeneously descriptions of virtualized infras-tructures, their transformations, their desired goals, and evaluation strategies. The different verification tools range from model checking to theorem proving; this allows us to exploit the complementary strengths of methods, and also to understand how to best represent the analysis problems in different contexts. We consider first the static case where the topology of the virtual infrastructure is fixed and demonstrate that our platform allows for the declarative specification of a large class of properties. Even though tools that are special-ized to checking particular properties perform better than our generic approach, we show with a real-world case study that our approach is practically feasible. We finally consider also the dynamic case where the intruder can actively change the topology (by migrating machines). The combination of a complex topology and changes to it by an intruder is a problem that lies beyond the scope of previous analysis tools and to which we can give first positive verification results

Deliverable JRA1.1: Evaluation of current network control and management planes for multi-domain network infrastructure

This deliverable includes a compilation and evaluation of available control and management architectures and protocols applicable to a multilayer infrastructure in a multi-domain Virtual Network environment.The scope of this deliverable is mainly focused on the virtualisation of the resources within a network and at processing nodes. The virtualization of the FEDERICA infrastructure allows the provisioning of its available resources to users by means of FEDERICA slices. A slice is seen by the user as a real physical network under his/her domain, however it maps to a logical partition (a virtual instance) of the physical FEDERICA resources. A slice is built to exhibit to the highest degree all the principles applicable to a physical network (isolation, reproducibility, manageability, ...). Currently, there are no standard definitions available for network virtualization or its associated architectures. Therefore, this deliverable proposes the Virtual Network layer architecture and evaluates a set of Management- and Control Planes that can be used for the partitioning and virtualization of the FEDERICA network resources. This evaluation has been performed taking into account an initial set of FEDERICA requirements; a possible extension of the selected tools will be evaluated in future deliverables. The studies described in this deliverable define the virtual architecture of the FEDERICA infrastructure. During this activity, the need has been recognised to establish a new set of basic definitions (taxonomy) for the building blocks that compose the so-called slice, i.e. the virtual network instantiation (which is virtual with regard to the abstracted view made of the building blocks of the FEDERICA infrastructure) and its architectural plane representation. These definitions will be established as a common nomenclature for the FEDERICA project. Other important aspects when defining a new architecture are the user requirements. It is crucial that the resulting architecture fits the demands that users may have. Since this deliverable has been produced at the same time as the contact process with users, made by the project activities related to the Use Case definitions, JRA1 has proposed a set of basic Use Cases to be considered as starting point for its internal studies. When researchers want to experiment with their developments, they need not only network resources on their slices, but also a slice of the processing resources. These processing slice resources are understood as virtual machine instances that users can use to make them behave as software routers or end nodes, on which to download the software protocols or applications they have produced and want to assess in a realistic environment. Hence, this deliverable also studies the APIs of several virtual machine management software products in order to identify which best suits FEDERICA’s needs.Postprint (published version

Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud

With the advent of cloud computing, organizations are nowadays able to react rapidly to changing demands for computational resources. Not only individual applications can be hosted on virtual cloud infrastructures, but also complete business processes. This allows the realization of so-called elastic processes, i.e., processes which are carried out using elastic cloud resources. Despite the manifold benefits of elastic processes, there is still a lack of solutions supporting them. In this paper, we identify the state of the art of elastic Business Process Management with a focus on infrastructural challenges. We conceptualize an architecture for an elastic Business Process Management System and discuss existing work on scheduling, resource allocation, monitoring, decentralized coordination, and state management for elastic processes. Furthermore, we present two representative elastic Business Process Management Systems which are intended to counter these challenges. Based on our findings, we identify open issues and outline possible research directions for the realization of elastic processes and elastic Business Process Management.Comment: Please cite as: S. Schulte, C. Janiesch, S. Venugopal, I. Weber, and P. Hoenisch (2015). Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume NN, Number N, NN-NN., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2014.09.00

Autonomic Cloud Computing: Open Challenges and Architectural Elements

As Clouds are complex, large-scale, and heterogeneous distributed systems, management of their resources is a challenging task. They need automated and integrated intelligent strategies for provisioning of resources to offer services that are secure, reliable, and cost-efficient. Hence, effective management of services becomes fundamental in software platforms that constitute the fabric of computing Clouds. In this direction, this paper identifies open issues in autonomic resource provisioning and presents innovative management techniques for supporting SaaS applications hosted on Clouds. We present a conceptual architecture and early results evidencing the benefits of autonomic management of Clouds.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, conference keynote pape

Phenomenology Tools on Cloud Infrastructures using OpenStack

We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage "virtual" machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on "virtual" machines versus the utilization of "real" physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; information on memory usage included, as well as minor modifications. Version to appear in EPJ

Deliverable DJRA1.2. Solutions and protocols proposal for the network control, management and monitoring in a virtualized network context

This deliverable presents several research proposals for the FEDERICA network, in different subjects, such as monitoring, routing, signalling, resource discovery, and isolation. For each topic one or more possible solutions are elaborated, explaining the background, functioning and the implications of the proposed solutions.This deliverable goes further on the research aspects within FEDERICA. First of all the architecture of the control plane for the FEDERICA infrastructure will be defined. Several possibilities could be implemented, using the basic FEDERICA infrastructure as a starting point. The focus on this document is the intra-domain aspects of the control plane and their properties. Also some inter-domain aspects are addressed. The main objective of this deliverable is to lay great stress on creating and implementing the prototype/tool for the FEDERICA slice-oriented control system using the appropriate framework. This deliverable goes deeply into the definition of the containers between entities and their syntax, preparing this tool for the future implementation of any kind of algorithm related to the control plane, for both to apply UPB policies or to configure it by hand. We opt for an open solution despite the real time limitations that we could have (for instance, opening web services connexions or applying fast recovering mechanisms). The application being developed is the central element in the control plane, and additional features must be added to this application. This control plane, from the functionality point of view, is composed by several procedures that provide a reliable application and that include some mechanisms or algorithms to be able to discover and assign resources to the user. To achieve this, several topics must be researched in order to propose new protocols for the virtual infrastructure. The topics and necessary features covered in this document include resource discovery, resource allocation, signalling, routing, isolation and monitoring. All these topics must be researched in order to find a good solution for the FEDERICA network. Some of these algorithms have started to be analyzed and will be expanded in the next deliverable. Current standardization and existing solutions have been investigated in order to find a good solution for FEDERICA. Resource discovery is an important issue within the FEDERICA network, as manual resource discovery is no option, due to scalability requirement. Furthermore, no standardization exists, so knowledge must be obtained from related work. Ideally, the proposed solutions for these topics should not only be adequate specifically for this infrastructure, but could also be applied to other virtualized networks.Postprint (published version