9,886 research outputs found

    Cumulonimbus Computing Concerns: Information Security in Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud Computing

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    Companies of all sizes operating in all markets are moving toward cloud computing for greater flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings. The decision of how to adopt the cloud is a question of major security concern due to the fact that control is relinquished over certain portions of the IT ecosystem. This thesis presents the position that the main security decision in moving to cloud computing is choosing which type of cloud to employ for each portion of the network – the hybrid cloud approach. Vulnerabilities that exist on a public cloud will be explored, and recommendations on decision factors will be made for which specific types of systems to harbor inside a private cloud. Picking the best location for each system allows risk to be managed and sensitive information to be protected while at the same time providing a cost effective option

    Toward least-privilege isolation for software

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    Hackers leverage software vulnerabilities to disclose, tamper with, or destroy sensitive data. To protect sensitive data, programmers can adhere to the principle of least-privilege, which entails giving software the minimal privilege it needs to operate, which ensures that sensitive data is only available to software components on a strictly need-to-know basis. Unfortunately, applying this principle in practice is dif- �cult, as current operating systems tend to provide coarse-grained mechanisms for limiting privilege. Thus, most applications today run with greater-than-necessary privileges. We propose sthreads, a set of operating system primitives that allows �ne-grained isolation of software to approximate the least-privilege ideal. sthreads enforce a default-deny model, where software components have no privileges by default, so all privileges must be explicitly granted by the programmer. Experience introducing sthreads into previously monolithic applications|thus, partitioning them|reveals that enumerating privileges for sthreads is di�cult in practice. To ease the introduction of sthreads into existing code, we include Crowbar, a tool that can be used to learn the privileges required by a compartment. We show that only a few changes are necessary to existing code in order to partition applications with sthreads, and that Crowbar can guide the programmer through these changes. We show that applying sthreads to applications successfully narrows the attack surface by reducing the amount of code that can access sensitive data. Finally, we show that applications using sthreads pay only a small performance overhead. We applied sthreads to a range of applications. Most notably, an SSL web server, where we show that sthreads are powerful enough to protect sensitive data even against a strong adversary that can act as a man-in-the-middle in the network, and also exploit most code in the web server; a threat model not addressed to date

    Providing secure remote access to legacy applications

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    While the widespread adoption of Internet and Intranet technology has been one of the exciting developments of recent years, many hospitals are finding that their data and legacy applications do not naturally fit into the new methods of dissemination. Existing applications often rely on isolation or trusted networks for their access control or security, whereas untrusted wide area networks pay little attention to the authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of the data they transport. Many hospitals do not have the resources to develop new ''network-ready'' versions of existing centralised applications. In this paper, we examine the issues that must be considered when providing network access to an existing health care application, and we describe how we have implemented the proposed solution in one healthcare application namely the diabetic register at Hope Hospital. We describe the architecture that allows remote access to the legacy application, providing it with encrypted communications and strongly authenticated access control but without requiring any modifications to the underlying application. As well as comparing alternative ways of implementing such a system, we also consider issues relating to usability and manageability, such as password management

    Assessing database and network threats in traditional and cloud computing

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    Cloud Computing is currently one of the most widely-spoken terms in IT. While it offers a range of technological and financial benefits, its wide acceptance by organizations is not yet wide spread. Security concerns are a main reason for this and this paper studies the data and network threats posed in both traditional and cloud paradigms in an effort to assert in which areas cloud computing addresses security issues and where it does introduce new ones. This evaluation is based on Microsoft’s STRIDE threat model and discusses the stakeholders, the impact and recommendations for tackling each threat

    On the creation of a secure key enclave via the use of memory isolation in systems management mode

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    One of the challenges of modern cloud computer security is how to isolate or contain data and applications in a variety of ways, while still allowing sharing where desirable. Hardware-based attacks such as RowHammer and Spectre have demonstrated the need to safeguard the cryptographic operations and keys from tampering upon which so much current security technology depends. This paper describes research into security mechanisms for protecting sensitive areas of memory from tampering or intrusion using the facilities of Systems Management Mode. The work focuses on the creation of a small, dedicated area of memory in which to perform cryptographic operations, isolated from the rest of the system. The approach has been experimentally validated by a case study involving the creation of a secure webserver whose encryption key is protected using this approach such that even an intruder with full Administrator level access cannot extract the key

    On the creation of a secure key enclave via the use of memory isolation in systems management mode

    Get PDF
    One of the challenges of modern cloud computer security is how to isolate or contain data and applications in a variety of ways, while still allowing sharing where desirable. Hardware-based attacks such as RowHammer and Spectre have demonstrated the need to safeguard the cryptographic operations and keys from tampering upon which so much current security technology depends. This paper describes research into security mechanisms for protecting sensitive areas of memory from tampering or intrusion using the facilities of Systems Management Mode. The work focuses on the creation of a small, dedicated area of memory in which to perform cryptographic operations, isolated from the rest of the system. The approach has been experimentally validated by a case study involving the creation of a secure webserver whose encryption key is protected using this approach such that even an intruder with full Administrator level access cannot extract the key
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