Analysis of security protocols using finite-state machines

This paper demonstrates a comprehensive analysis method using formal methods such as finite-state machine. First, we describe the modified version of our new protocol and briefly explain the encrypt-then-authenticate mechanism, which is regarded as more a secure mechanism than the one used in our protocol. Then, we use a finite-state verification to study the behaviour of each machine created for each phase of the protocol and examine their behaviour s together. Modelling with finite-state machines shows that the modified protocol can function correctly and behave properly even with invalid input or time delay

Proceedings of International Workshop "Global Computing: Programming Environments, Languages, Security and Analysis of Systems"

According to the IST/ FET proactive initiative on GLOBAL COMPUTING, the goal is to obtain techniques (models, frameworks, methods, algorithms) for constructing systems that are flexible, dependable, secure, robust and efficient. The dominant concerns are not those of representing and manipulating data efficiently but rather those of handling the co-ordination and interaction, security, reliability, robustness, failure modes, and control of risk of the entities in the system and the overall design, description and performance of the system itself. Completely different paradigms of computer science may have to be developed to tackle these issues effectively. The research should concentrate on systems having the following characteristics: • The systems are composed of autonomous computational entities where activity is not centrally controlled, either because global control is impossible or impractical, or because the entities are created or controlled by different owners. • The computational entities are mobile, due to the movement of the physical platforms or by movement of the entity from one platform to another. • The configuration varies over time. For instance, the system is open to the introduction of new computational entities and likewise their deletion. The behaviour of the entities may vary over time. • The systems operate with incomplete information about the environment. For instance, information becomes rapidly out of date and mobility requires information about the environment to be discovered. The ultimate goal of the research action is to provide a solid scientific foundation for the design of such systems, and to lay the groundwork for achieving effective principles for building and analysing such systems. This workshop covers the aspects related to languages and programming environments as well as analysis of systems and resources involving 9 projects (AGILE , DART, DEGAS , MIKADO, MRG, MYTHS, PEPITO, PROFUNDIS, SECURE) out of the 13 founded under the initiative. After an year from the start of the projects, the goal of the workshop is to fix the state of the art on the topics covered by the two clusters related to programming environments and analysis of systems as well as to devise strategies and new ideas to profitably continue the research effort towards the overall objective of the initiative. We acknowledge the Dipartimento di Informatica and Tlc of the University of Trento, the Comune di Rovereto, the project DEGAS for partially funding the event and the Events and Meetings Office of the University of Trento for the valuable collaboration

Neighborhood Detection in Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Using Colored Petri Net

Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) [2] is a language for the modeling and validation of systems in which concurrency, communication [6], and synchronization play a major role. Colored Petri Nets is a discrete-event modeling language combining Petri nets with the functional programming language Standard ML. Petri nets provide the foundation of the graphical notation and the basic primitives for modeling concurrency, communication, and synchronization. Standard ML provides the primitives for the definition of data types, describing data manipulation, and for creating compact and parameterizable models. A CPN model of a system is an executable model representing the states of the system and the events (transitions) that can cause the system to change state [4]. The CPN language makes it possible to organize a model as a set of modules, and it includes a time concept for representing the time taken to execute events in the modeled system. In a mobile ad-hoc network(MANET) mobile nodes directly send messages to each other via wireless transmission. A node can send a message to another node beyond its transmission range by using other nodes as relay points, and thus a node can function as a router [1]. Typical applications of MANETS include defense systems such as battlefield survivability and disaster recovery. The research on MANETs originates from part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency(ARPA) project in the 1970s [1]. With the explosive growth of the Internet and mobile communication networks, challenging requirements have been introduced into MANETs and designing routing protocols has become more complex. One approach for ensuring correctness of an existing routing protocol is to create a formal model for the protocol and analyze the model to determine if indeed the protocol provides the defined service correctly. Colored Petri Nets are a suitable modeling language for this purpose as it can conveniently express non-determinism, concurrency and different levels of abstraction that are inherent in routing protocols. However, it is not easy to build a CPN model of a MANET because a node can move in and out of its transmission range and thus the MANET‟s topology dynamically changes. In this paper we propose an algorithm for addressing such mobility problem of a MANET [1]. Using this algorithm a node can find its neighbors ,which are dynamically changing, at any instant of time

A bibliography on formal methods for system specification, design and validation

Literature on the specification, design, verification, testing, and evaluation of avionics systems was surveyed, providing 655 citations. Journal papers, conference papers, and technical reports are included. Manual and computer-based methods were employed. Keywords used in the online search are listed

Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques and Applications

Despite its great importance, modern network infrastructure is remarkable for the lack of rigor in its engineering. The Internet which began as a research experiment was never designed to handle the users and applications it hosts today. The lack of formalization of the Internet architecture meant limited abstractions and modularity, especially for the control and management planes, thus requiring for every new need a new protocol built from scratch. This led to an unwieldy ossified Internet architecture resistant to any attempts at formal verification, and an Internet culture where expediency and pragmatism are favored over formal correctness. Fortunately, recent work in the space of clean slate Internet design---especially, the software defined networking (SDN) paradigm---offers the Internet community another chance to develop the right kind of architecture and abstractions. This has also led to a great resurgence in interest of applying formal methods to specification, verification, and synthesis of networking protocols and applications. In this paper, we present a self-contained tutorial of the formidable amount of work that has been done in formal methods, and present a survey of its applications to networking.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

A model of distributed key generation for industrial control systems

11th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems, WODES 2012; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Mexico; 3 October 2012 through 5 October 2012The cyber-security of industrial control systems (ICS) is gaining high relevance due to the impact of industrial system failures on the citizen life. There is an urgent need for the consideration of security in their design, and for the analysis of the related vulnerabilities and potential threats. The high exposure of industrial critical infrastructure to cyber-threats is mainly due to the intrinsic weakness of the communication protocols used to control the process network. The peculiarities of the industrial protocols (low computational power, large geographical distribution, near to real-time constraints) make hard the effective use of traditional cryptographic schemes and in particular the implementation of an effective key management infrastructure supporting a cryptographic layer. In this paper, we describe a "model of distributed key generation for industrial control systems" we have recently implemented. The model is based on a known Distributed Key Generator protocol we have adapted to an industrial control system environment and to the related communication protocol (Modbus). To validate in a formal way selected security properties of the model, we introduced a Petri Nets representation. This representation allows for modeling attacks against the protocol and understanding some potential weaknesses of its implementation in the industrial control system environment

Mapping AADL to Petri Net Tool-Sets Using PNML Framework

Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) has been utilized to specify and verify non- functional properties of Real-Time Embedded Systems (RTES) used in critical application systems. Examples of such critical application systems include medical devices, nuclear power plants, aer- ospace, financial, etc. Using AADL, an engineer is enable to analyze the quality of a system. For example, a developer can perform performance analysis such as end-to-end flow analysis to guarantee that system components have the required resources to meet the timing requirements relevant to their communications. The critical issue related to developing and deploying safety critical systems is how to validate the expected level of quality (e.g., safety, performance, security) and functionalities (capabilities) at design level. Currently, the core AADL is extensively applied to analyze and verify quality of RTES embed in the safety critical applications. The notation lacks the formal semantics needed to reason about the logical properties (e.g., deadlock, livelock, etc.) and capabilities of safety critical systems. The objective of this research is to augment AADL with exit- ing formal semantics and supporting tools in a manner that these properties can be automatically verified. Toward this goal, we exploit Petri Net Markup Language (PNML), which is a standard act- ing as the intermediate language between different classes of Petri Nets. Using PNML, we interface AADL with different classes of Petri nets, which support different types of tools and reasoning. The justification for using PNML is that the framework provides a context in which interoperability and exchangeability among different models of a system specified by different types of Petri nets is possible. The contributions of our work include a set of mappings and mapping rules between AADL and PNML. To show the feasibility of our approach, a fragment of RT-Embedded system, namely, Cruise Control System has been used

On Secure Workflow Decentralisation on the Internet

Decentralised workflow management systems are a new research area, where most work to-date has focused on the system's overall architecture. As little attention has been given to the security aspects in such systems, we follow a security driven approach, and consider, from the perspective of available security building blocks, how security can be implemented and what new opportunities are presented when empowering the decentralised environment with modern distributed security protocols. Our research is motivated by a more general question of how to combine the positive enablers that email exchange enjoys, with the general benefits of workflow systems, and more specifically with the benefits that can be introduced in a decentralised environment. This aims to equip email users with a set of tools to manage the semantics of a message exchange, contents, participants and their roles in the exchange in an environment that provides inherent assurances of security and privacy. This work is based on a survey of contemporary distributed security protocols, and considers how these protocols could be used in implementing a distributed workflow management system with decentralised control . We review a set of these protocols, focusing on the required message sequences in reviewing the protocols, and discuss how these security protocols provide the foundations for implementing core control-flow, data, and resource patterns in a distributed workflow environment