2,329 research outputs found
Securing Our Future Homes: Smart Home Security Issues and Solutions
The Internet of Things, commonly known as IoT, is a new technology transforming businesses, individuals’ daily lives and the operation of entire countries. With more and more devices becoming equipped with IoT technology, smart homes are becoming increasingly popular. The components that make up a smart home are at risk for different types of attacks; therefore, security engineers are developing solutions to current problems and are predicting future types of attacks. This paper will analyze IoT smart home components, explain current security risks, and suggest possible solutions. According to “What is a Smart Home” (n.d.), a smart home is a home that always operates in consideration of security, energy, efficiency and convenience, whether anyone is home or not
Side-channel based intrusion detection for industrial control systems
Industrial Control Systems are under increased scrutiny. Their security is
historically sub-par, and although measures are being taken by the
manufacturers to remedy this, the large installed base of legacy systems cannot
easily be updated with state-of-the-art security measures. We propose a system
that uses electromagnetic side-channel measurements to detect behavioural
changes of the software running on industrial control systems. To demonstrate
the feasibility of this method, we show it is possible to profile and
distinguish between even small changes in programs on Siemens S7-317 PLCs,
using methods from cryptographic side-channel analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. For associated code, see
https://polvanaubel.com/research/em-ics/code
Forensic Attacks Analysis and the Cyber Security of Safety-Critical Industrial Control Systems
Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) applications monitor
and control a wide range of safety-related functions. These include energy generation where failures could have
significant, irreversible consequences. They also include the control systems that are used in the manufacture of
safety-related products. In this case bugs in an ICS/SCADA system could introduce flaws in the production of
components that remain undetected before being incorporated into safety-related applications. Industrial Control
Systems, typically, use devices and networks that are very different from conventional IP-based infrastructures.
These differences prevent the re-use of existing cyber-security products in ICS/SCADA environments; the
architectures, file formats and process structures are very different. This paper supports the forensic analysis of
industrial control systems in safety-related applications. In particular, we describe how forensic attack analysis is
used to identify weaknesses in devices so that we can both protect components but also determine the information
that must be analyzed during the aftermath of a cyber-incident. Simulated attacks detect vulnerabilities; a risk-based
approach can then be used to assess the likelihood and impact of any breach. These risk assessments are then used
to justify both immediate and longer-term countermeasures
InternalBlue - Bluetooth Binary Patching and Experimentation Framework
Bluetooth is one of the most established technologies for short range digital
wireless data transmission. With the advent of wearables and the Internet of
Things (IoT), Bluetooth has again gained importance, which makes security
research and protocol optimizations imperative. Surprisingly, there is a lack
of openly available tools and experimental platforms to scrutinize Bluetooth.
In particular, system aspects and close to hardware protocol layers are mostly
uncovered.
We reverse engineer multiple Broadcom Bluetooth chipsets that are widespread
in off-the-shelf devices. Thus, we offer deep insights into the internal
architecture of a popular commercial family of Bluetooth controllers used in
smartphones, wearables, and IoT platforms. Reverse engineered functions can
then be altered with our InternalBlue Python framework---outperforming
evaluation kits, which are limited to documented and vendor-defined functions.
The modified Bluetooth stack remains fully functional and high-performance.
Hence, it provides a portable low-cost research platform.
InternalBlue is a versatile framework and we demonstrate its abilities by
implementing tests and demos for known Bluetooth vulnerabilities. Moreover, we
discover a novel critical security issue affecting a large selection of
Broadcom chipsets that allows executing code within the attacked Bluetooth
firmware. We further show how to use our framework to fix bugs in chipsets out
of vendor support and how to add new security features to Bluetooth firmware
External Verification of SCADA System Embedded Controller Firmware
Critical infrastructures such as oil and gas pipelines, the electric power grid, and railways, rely on the proper operation of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Current SCADA systems, however, do not have sufficient tailored electronic security solutions. Solutions available are developed primarily for information technology (IT) systems. Indeed, the toolkit for SCADA incident prevention and response is unavailing as the operating parameters associated with SCADA systems are different from IT systems. The unique environment necessitates tailored solutions. Consider the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that directly connect to end physical systems for control and monitoring of operating parameters -- the compromise of a PLC could result in devastating physical consequences. Yet PLCs remain particularly vulnerable due to a lack of firmware auditing capabilities. This research presents a tool we developed specifically for the SCADA environment to verify PLC firmware. The tool does not require any modifications to the SCADA system and can be implemented on a variety of systems and platforms. The tool captures serial data during firmware uploads and then verifies them against a known good firmware baseline. Attempts to inject modified and/or malicious firmware are identified by the tool. Additionally, the tool can replay and analyze captured data by emulating a PLC during firmware upload. The emulation capability enables verification of the firmware upload from an interface computer without requiring modifications to or interactions with the operational SCADA system. The ability to isolate the tool from production systems and verify the validity of firmware makes the tool a viable application for SCADA incident response teams and security engineers
xLED: Covert Data Exfiltration from Air-Gapped Networks via Router LEDs
In this paper we show how attackers can covertly leak data (e.g., encryption
keys, passwords and files) from highly secure or air-gapped networks via the
row of status LEDs that exists in networking equipment such as LAN switches and
routers. Although it is known that some network equipment emanates optical
signals correlated with the information being processed by the device
('side-channel'), intentionally controlling the status LEDs to carry any type
of data ('covert-channel') has never studied before. A malicious code is
executed on the LAN switch or router, allowing full control of the status LEDs.
Sensitive data can be encoded and modulated over the blinking of the LEDs. The
generated signals can then be recorded by various types of remote cameras and
optical sensors. We provide the technical background on the internal
architecture of switches and routers (at both the hardware and software level)
which enables this type of attack. We also present amplitude and frequency
based modulation and encoding schemas, along with a simple transmission
protocol. We implement a prototype of an exfiltration malware and discuss its
design and implementation. We evaluate this method with a few routers and
different types of LEDs. In addition, we tested various receivers including
remote cameras, security cameras, smartphone cameras, and optical sensors, and
also discuss different detection and prevention countermeasures. Our experiment
shows that sensitive data can be covertly leaked via the status LEDs of
switches and routers at a bit rates of 10 bit/sec to more than 1Kbit/sec per
LED
Simulation of attacks for security in wireless sensor network
The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node?s software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work.This work has been funded by the Spanish MICINN under the TEC2011-28666-C04-02 and TEC2014-58036-C4-3-R project
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