Математические модели, методы и архитектуры для защиты компьютерных сетей: обзор перспективных исследований по результатам Международной конференции MMM–ACNS–2012

The paper provides an analytical review of perspective research directions according to the talks by leading foreign and domestic experts in the security of computer networks, presented at the 6th International Conference "Mathematical Methods, Models and Architectures for Computer Networks Security» (MMM–ACNS–2012), held in St. Petersburg from 17 to 19 October, 2012. World-known scientists, such as A. Stavrou, B. Livshits, L. Khan, and F. Martinelli, made invited talks. On sections of the conference there were discussed topical issues related to the intrusion prevention, detection, and response, anti-malware techniques, applied cryptography and security protocols, access control and information protection, security event and information management, security modeling and cloud security, and security policies.В статье приводится аналитический обзор перспективных направлений исследований по результатам докладов ведущих зарубежных и отечественных специалистов в области обеспечения безопасности компьютерных сетей, сделанных на шестой Международной конференции «Математические модели, методы и архитектуры для защиты компьютерных сетей» (MMM–ACNS–2012), проходившей в Санкт-Петербурге с 17 по 19 октября 2012 года. С приглашенными докладами выступили такие известные в мире ученые, как А. Ставро, Б. Лившиц, Л. Кхан и Ф. Мартинелли. На секциях конференции были рассмотрены актуальные вопросы, связанные с предотвращением, обнаружением и реагированием на вторжения, противодействием вредоносному программному обеспечению, прикладной криптографией и протоколами безопасности, разграничением доступа и защитой информации, управлением событиями и информацией безопасности, моделированием защиты информации и безопасностью облачных вычислений, политиками безопасности

Formal-Guided Fuzz Testing: Targeting Security Assurance from Specification to Implementation for 5G and Beyond

Softwarization and virtualization in 5G and beyond necessitate thorough testing to ensure the security of critical infrastructure and networks, requiring the identification of vulnerabilities and unintended emergent behaviors from protocol designs to their software stack implementation. To provide an efficient and comprehensive solution, we propose a novel and first-of-its-kind approach that connects the strengths and coverage of formal and fuzzing methods to efficiently detect vulnerabilities across protocol logic and implementation stacks in a hierarchical manner. We design and implement formal verification to detect attack traces in critical protocols, which are used to guide subsequent fuzz testing and incorporate feedback from fuzz testing to broaden the scope of formal verification. This innovative approach significantly improves efficiency and enables the auto-discovery of vulnerabilities and unintended emergent behaviors from the 3GPP protocols to software stacks. Following this approach, we discover one identifier leakage model, one DoS attack model, and two eavesdrop attack models due to the absence of rudimentary MITM protection within the protocol, despite the existence of a Transport Layer Security (TLS) solution to this issue for over a decade. More remarkably, guided by the identified formal analysis and attack models, we exploit 61 vulnerabilities using fuzz testing demonstrated on srsRAN platforms. These identified vulnerabilities contribute to fortifying protocol-level assumptions and refining the search space. Compared to state-of-the-art fuzz testing, our united formal and fuzzing methodology enables auto-assurance by systematically discovering vulnerabilities. It significantly reduces computational complexity, transforming the non-practical exponential growth in computational cost into linear growth

Design Technique for Secure Embedded Devices: Application for Creation of Integrated Cyber-Physical Security System

Abstract As elements of complex information systems, embedded devices define informational and physical connections between the level of software control of the system on the one hand, and its technical environment and users on the other. Operating in a potentially volatile and untrusted cyber-physical environment, using insufficiently secure communication channels and sensors as well as various external influences cause such devices are subject to specific attacking actions. As a result the design of such systems is a challenging task often requiring expert based solutions. The main contribution of the paper is a design technique for secure embedded devices on the basis of combinations of security components, optimization approach and developed software tools for decision making support. The correctness of the technique is confirmed by its use in the development of the integrated cyberphysical security system

Detection of repackaged mobile applications through a collaborative approach

none4noRepackaged applications are based on genuine applications, but they subtlety include some modifications. In particular, trojanized applications are one of the most dangerous threats for smartphones. Malware code may be hidden inside applications to access private data or to leak user credit. In this paper, we propose a contract-based approach to detect such repackaged applications, where a contract specifies the set of legal actions that can be performed by an application. Current methods to generate contracts lack information from real usage scenarios, thus being inaccurate and too coarse-grained. This may result either in generating too many false positives or in missing misbehaviors when verifying the compliance between the application and the contract. In the proposed framework, application contracts are generated dynamically by a central server merging execution traces collected and shared continuously by collaborative users executing the application. More precisely, quantitative information extracted from execution traces is used to define a contract describing the expected application behavior, which is deployed to the cooperating users. Then, every user can use the received contract to check whether the related application is either genuine or repackaged. Such a verification is based on an enforcement mechanism that monitors the application execution at run-time and compares it against the contract through statistical tests.openAlessandro Aldini; Fabio Martinelli; Andrea Saracino; Daniele SgandurraAldini, Alessandro; Fabio, Martinelli; Andrea, Saracino; Daniele, Sgandurr

DAG-Based Attack and Defense Modeling: Don't Miss the Forest for the Attack Trees

This paper presents the current state of the art on attack and defense modeling approaches that are based on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). DAGs allow for a hierarchical decomposition of complex scenarios into simple, easily understandable and quantifiable actions. Methods based on threat trees and Bayesian networks are two well-known approaches to security modeling. However there exist more than 30 DAG-based methodologies, each having different features and goals. The objective of this survey is to present a complete overview of graphical attack and defense modeling techniques based on DAGs. This consists of summarizing the existing methodologies, comparing their features and proposing a taxonomy of the described formalisms. This article also supports the selection of an adequate modeling technique depending on user requirements

Security Analysis of System Behaviour - From "Security by Design" to "Security at Runtime" -

The Internet today provides the environment for novel applications and processes which may evolve way beyond pre-planned scope and purpose. Security analysis is growing in complexity with the increase in functionality, connectivity, and dynamics of current electronic business processes. Technical processes within critical infrastructures also have to cope with these developments. To tackle the complexity of the security analysis, the application of models is becoming standard practice. However, model-based support for security analysis is not only needed in pre-operational phases but also during process execution, in order to provide situational security awareness at runtime. This cumulative thesis provides three major contributions to modelling methodology. Firstly, this thesis provides an approach for model-based analysis and verification of security and safety properties in order to support fault prevention and fault removal in system design or redesign. Furthermore, some construction principles for the design of well-behaved scalable systems are given. The second topic is the analysis of the exposition of vulnerabilities in the software components of networked systems to exploitation by internal or external threats. This kind of fault forecasting allows the security assessment of alternative system configurations and security policies. Validation and deployment of security policies that minimise the attack surface can now improve fault tolerance and mitigate the impact of successful attacks. Thirdly, the approach is extended to runtime applicability. An observing system monitors an event stream from the observed system with the aim to detect faults - deviations from the specified behaviour or security compliance violations - at runtime. Furthermore, knowledge about the expected behaviour given by an operational model is used to predict faults in the near future. Building on this, a holistic security management strategy is proposed. The architecture of the observing system is described and the applicability of model-based security analysis at runtime is demonstrated utilising processes from several industrial scenarios. The results of this cumulative thesis are provided by 19 selected peer-reviewed papers

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2005

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems and Engineering Management, Operational Sciences, and Engineering Physics