A Secure Mobile-based Authentication System

Financial information is extremely sensitive. Hence, electronic banking must provide a robust system to authenticate its customers and let them access their data remotely. On the other hand, such system must be usable, affordable, and portable.We propose a challengeresponse based one-time password (OTP) scheme that uses symmetric cryptography in combination with a hardware security module. The proposed protocol safeguards passwords from keyloggers and phishing attacks. Besides, this solution provides convenient mobility for users who want to bank online anytime and anywhere, not just from their own trusted computers.La informació financera és extremadament sensible. Per tant, la banca electrònica ha de proporcionar un sistema robust per autenticar als seus clients i fer-los accedir a les dades de forma remota. D'altra banda, aquest sistema ha de ser usable, accessible, i portàtil. Es proposa una resposta al desafiament basat en una contrasenya única (OTP), esquema que utilitza la criptografia simètrica en combinació amb un mòdul de maquinari de seguretat. Amés, aquesta solució ofereix mobilitat convenient per als usuaris que volen bancària en línia en qualsevol moment i en qualsevol lloc, no només des dels seus propis equips de confiança.La información financiera es extremadamente sensible. Por lo tanto, la banca electrónica debe proporcionar un sistema robusto para autenticar a sus clientes y hacerles acceder a sus datos de forma remota. Por otra parte, dicho sistema debe ser usable, accesible, y portátil. Se propone una respuesta al desafío basado en una contraseña única (OTP), esquema que utiliza la criptografía simétrica en combinación con un módulo hardware de seguridad hardware. Además, esta solución ofrece una movilidad conveniente para los usuarios que quieren la entidad bancaria en línea en cualquier momento y en cualquier lugar, no sólo des de sus propios equipos de confianza

Hyp3rArmor: reducing web application exposure to automated attacks

Web applications (webapps) are subjected constantly to automated, opportunistic attacks from autonomous robots (bots) engaged in reconnaissance to discover victims that may be vulnerable to specific exploits. This is a typical behavior found in botnet recruitment, worm propagation, largescale fingerprinting and vulnerability scanners. Most anti-bot techniques are deployed at the application layer, thus leaving the network stack of the webapp’s server exposed. In this paper we present a mechanism called Hyp3rArmor, that addresses this vulnerability by minimizing the webapp’s attack surface exposed to automated opportunistic attackers, for JavaScriptenabled web browser clients. Our solution uses port knocking to eliminate the webapp’s visible network footprint. Clients of the webapp are directed to a visible static web server to obtain JavaScript that authenticates the client to the webapp server (using port knocking) before making any requests to the webapp. Our implementation of Hyp3rArmor, which is compatible with all webapp architectures, has been deployed and used to defend single and multi-page websites on the Internet for 114 days. During this time period the static web server observed 964 attempted attacks that were deflected from the webapp, which was only accessed by authenticated clients. Our evaluation shows that in most cases client-side overheads were negligible and that server-side overheads were minimal. Hyp3rArmor is ideal for critical systems and legacy applications that must be accessible on the Internet. Additionally Hyp3rArmor is composable with other security tools, adding an additional layer to a defense in depth approach.This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards #1430145, #1414119, and #1012798

Security issues and defences for Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims at linking billions of devices using the internet and other heterogeneous networks to share information. However, the issues of security in IoT environments are more challenging than with ordinary Internet. A vast number of devices are exposed to the attackers, and some of those devices contain sensitive personal and confidential data. For example, the sensitive flows of data such as autonomous vehicles, patient life support devices, traffic data in smart cities are extremely concerned by researchers from the security field. The IoT architecture needs to handle security and privacy requirements such as provision of authentication, access control, privacy and confidentiality. This thesis presents the architecture of IoT and its security issues. Additionally, we introduce the concept of blockchain technology, and the role of blockchain in different security aspects of IoT is discussed through a literature review. In case study of Mirai, we explain how snort and iptables based approach can be used to prevent IoT botnet from finding IoT devices by port scanning

Evaluating IP surveillance camera vulnerabilities

Hacking of IP surveillance camera systems came to public attention in 2016 when the high bandwidth and resources were exploited for a massive DDoS attack that affected one third of all US Internet services. A review of previous studies show that a vast number of IP cameras have been hacked because the default usernames and passwords have not been changed from the factory defaults. In this research we asked, What are the vulnerabilities of an IP surveillance camera? The purpose of the study was to provide identification of vulnerabilities and guidance for the protection of surveillance camera systems. The research shows that the tested surveillance camera had many vulnerabilities and that there is urgency for distributing alerts and best practice guidelines

Attack Taxonomy Methodology Applied to Web Services

With the rapid evolution of attack techniques and attacker targets, companies and researchers question the applicability and effectiveness of security taxonomies. Although the attack taxonomies allow us to propose a classification scheme, they are easily rendered useless by the generation of new attacks. Due to its distributed and open nature, web services give rise to new security challenges. The purpose of this study is to apply a methodology for categorizing and updating attacks prior to the continuous creation and evolution of new attack schemes on web services. Also, in this research, we collected thirty-three (33) types of attacks classified into five (5) categories, such as brute force, spoofing, flooding, denial-of-services, and injection attacks, in order to obtain the state of the art of vulnerabilities against web services. Finally, the attack taxonomy is applied to a web service, modeling through attack trees. The use of this methodology allows us to prevent future attacks applied to many technologies, not only web services.Con la rápida evolución de las técnicas de ataque y los objetivos de los atacantes, las empresas y los investigadores cuestionan la aplicabilidad y eficacia de las taxonomías de seguridad. Si bien las taxonomías de ataque nos permiten proponer un esquema de clasificación, son fácilmente inutilizadas por la generación de nuevos ataques. Debido a su naturaleza distribuida y abierta, los servicios web plantean nuevos desafíos de seguridad. El propósito de este estudio es aplicar una metodología para categorizar y actualizar ataques previos a la continua creación y evolución de nuevos esquemas de ataque a servicios web. Asimismo, en esta investigación recolectamos treinta y tres (33) tipos de ataques clasificados en cinco (5) categorías, tales como fuerza bruta, suplantación de identidad, inundación, denegación de servicios y ataques de inyección, con el fin de obtener el estado del arte de las vulnerabilidades contra servicios web. Finalmente, se aplica la taxonomía de ataque a un servicio web, modelado a través de árboles de ataque. El uso de esta metodología nos permite prevenir futuros ataques aplicados a muchas tecnologías, no solo a servicios web

Detection of HTTPS brute-force attacks in high-speed computer networks

Tato práce představuje přehled metod pro detekci síťových hrozeb se zaměřením na útoky hrubou silou proti webovým aplikacím, jako jsou WordPress a Joomla. Byl vytvořen nový dataset, který se skládá z provozu zachyceného na páteřní síti a útoků generovaných pomocí open-source nástrojů. Práce přináší novou metodu pro detekci útoku hrubou silou, která je založena na charakteristikách jednotlivých paketů a používá moderní metody strojového učení. Metoda funguje s šifrovanou HTTPS komunikací, a to bez nutnosti dešifrování jednotlivých paketů. Stále více webových aplikací používá HTTPS pro zabezpečení komunikace, a proto je nezbytné aktualizovat detekční metody, aby byla zachována základní viditelnost do síťového provozu.This thesis presents a review of flow-based network threat detection, with the focus on brute-force attacks against popular web applications, such as WordPress and Joomla. A new dataset was created that consists of benign backbone network traffic and brute-force attacks generated with open-source attack tools. The thesis proposes a method for brute-force attack detection that is based on packet-level characteristics and uses modern machine-learning models. Also, it works with encrypted HTTPS traffic, even without decrypting the payload. More and more network traffic is being encrypted, and it is crucial to update our intrusion detection methods to maintain at least some level of network visibility