Exploração de Covert Channels de Rede sobre comunicações IEEE 802.15.4

The advancements in information and communication technology in the past decades have been converging into a new communication paradigm in which everything is expected to be interconnected with the heightened pervasiveness and ubiquity of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. As these technologies mature, they are increasingly finding its way into more sensitive domains, such as Medical and Industrial IoT, in which safety and cyber-security are paramount. While the number of deployed IoT devices continues to increase annually, up to tens of billions of connected devices, IoT devices continue to present severe cyber-security vulnerabilities, which are worsened by challenges such as scalability, heterogeneity, and their often scarce computing capacity. Network covert channels are increasingly being used to support malware with stealthy behaviours, aiming at exfiltrating data or to orchestrate nodes of a botnet in a cloaked fashion. Nevertheless, the attention to this problem regarding underlying and pervasive IoT protocols such as the IEEE 802.15.4 has been scarce. Therefore, in this Thesis, we aim at analysing the performance and feasibility of such covertchannel implementations upon the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol to support the development of new mechanisms and add-ons that can effectively contribute to improve the current state of-art of IoT systems which rely on such, or similar underlying communication technologies.Os avanços nas tecnologias de informação e comunicação nas últimas décadas têm convergido num novo paradigma de comunicação, onde se espera que todos os intervenientes estejam interconectados pela ubiquidade do paradigma da Internet of Things (Internet das Coisas). Com a maturação destas tecnologias, elas têm-se vindo a infiltrar em domínios cada vez mais sensíveis, como nas aplicações médicas e industriais, onde a confiabilidade da informação e cyber-segurança são um fator crítico. Num contexto onde o número de dispositivos IoT continua a aumentar anualmente, já na ordem das dezenas de biliões de dispositivos interconectados, estes continuam, contudo, a apresentar severas vulnerabilidades no campo da cyber-segurança, sendo que os desafios como a escalabilidade, heterogeneidade e, na maioria das vezes, a sua baixa capacidade de processamento, tornam ainda mais complexa a sua resolução de forma permanente. Os covert channels de rede são cada vez mais um meio de suporte a malwares que apresentam comportamentos furtivos, almejando a extração de informação sensível ou a orquestração de nós de uma botnet de uma forma camuflada. Contudo, a atenção dada a este problema em protocolos de rede IoT abrangentes como o IEEE 802.15.4, tem sido escassa. Portanto, nesta tese, pretende-se elaborar uma análise da performance e da viabilidade da implementação de covert channels em modelos de rede onde figura o protocolo IEEE 802.15.4 de forma a suportar o desenvolvimento de novos mecanismos e complementos que podem efetivamente contribuir para melhorar a ciber-segurança de sistemas IoT que dependem do suporte destas tecnologias de comunicação

Pervasive service discovery in low-power and lossy networks

Pervasive Service Discovery (SD) in Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) is expected to play a major role in realising the Internet of Things (IoT) vision. Such a vision aims to expand the current Internet to interconnect billions of miniature smart objects that sense and act on our surroundings in a way that will revolutionise the future. The pervasiveness and heterogeneity of such low-power devices requires robust, automatic, interoperable and scalable deployment and operability solutions. At the same time, the limitations of such constrained devices impose strict challenges regarding complexity, energy consumption, time-efficiency and mobility. This research contributes new lightweight solutions to facilitate automatic deployment and operability of LLNs. It mainly tackles the aforementioned challenges through the proposition of novel component-based, automatic and efficient SD solutions that ensure extensibility and adaptability to various LLN environments. Building upon such architecture, a first fully-distributed, hybrid pushpull SD solution dubbed EADP (Extensible Adaptable Discovery Protocol) is proposed based on the well-known Trickle algorithm. Motivated by EADPs’ achievements, new methods to optimise Trickle are introduced. Such methods allow Trickle to encompass a wide range of algorithms and extend its usage to new application domains. One of the new applications is concretized in the TrickleSD protocol aiming to build automatic, reliable, scalable, and time-efficient SD. To optimise the energy efficiency of TrickleSD, two mechanisms improving broadcast communication in LLNs are proposed. Finally, interoperable standards-based SD in the IoT is demonstrated, and methods combining zero-configuration operations with infrastructure-based solutions are proposed. Experimental evaluations of the above contributions reveal that it is possible to achieve automatic, cost-effective, time-efficient, lightweight, and interoperable SD in LLNs. These achievements open novel perspectives for zero-configuration capabilities in the IoT and promise to bring the ‘things’ to all people everywhere

Synchronous and Concurrent Transmissions for Consensus in Low-Power Wireless

With the emergence of the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles and the Industry 4.0, the need for dependable yet adaptive network protocols is arising. Many of these applications build their operations on distributed consensus. For example, UAVs agree on maneuvers to execute, and industrial systems agree on set-points for actuators.Moreover, such scenarios imply a dynamic network topology due to mobility and interference, for example. Many applications are mission- and safety-critical, too.Failures could cost lives or precipitate economic losses.In this thesis, we design, implement and evaluate network protocols as a step towards enabling a low-power, adaptive and dependable ubiquitous networking that enables consensus in the Internet of Things. We make four main contributions:- We introduce Orchestra that addresses the challenge of bringing TSCH (Time Slotted Channel Hopping) to dynamic networks as envisioned in the Internet of Things. In Orchestra, nodes autonomously compute their local schedules and update automatically as the topology evolves without signaling overhead. Besides, it does not require a central or distributed scheduler. Instead, it relies on the existing network stack information to maintain the schedules.- We present A2 : Agreement in the Air, a system that brings distributed consensus to low-power multihop networks. A2 introduces Synchrotron, a synchronous transmissions kernel that builds a robust mesh by exploiting the capture effect, frequency hopping with parallel channels, and link-layer security. A2 builds on top of this layer and enables the two- and three-phase commit protocols, and services such as group membership, hopping sequence distribution, and re-keying.- We present Wireless Paxos, a fault-tolerant, network-wide consensus primitive for low-power wireless networks. It is a new variant of Paxos, a widely used consensus protocol, and is specifically designed to tackle the challenges of low-power wireless networks. By utilizing concurrent transmissions, it provides a dependable low-latency consensus.- We present BlueFlood, a protocol that adapts concurrent transmissions to Bluetooth. The result is fast and efficient data dissemination in multihop Bluetooth networks. Moreover, BlueFlood floods can be reliably received by off-the-shelf Bluetooth devices such as smartphones, opening new applications of concurrent transmissions and seamless integration with existing technologies

Protocoles de support IPv6 pour réseaux de capteurs sur courant porteur en ligne

This thesis demonstrate the relevance of Powerline Communication (PLC) usage for sensor networks applications. We focus in particular on the low power and low data rate PLC technol- ogy "Watt Pulse Communication" (WPC) developed by the Watteco company and justify its usage for sensor network applications. We situate the WPC technology in the PLC landscape and define compatible protocols. We then describe the WPC module and the PLC media im- plementation in the COOJA network simulator. This allows us to propose a network solution over this technology, leveraging on the adaptation of the 802.15.4 standard over the WPC tech- nology. We then demonstrate the benefit of media convergence at the network layer level, with the use of the IPv6 standard that we adapted over our PLC solution thanks to the 6LoWPAN protocol. We justify the usage of standards protocols over our PLC solution and show that a routing solutions must be developed over WPC. We show through experiments that our PLC solution match low power and lossy network (LLNs) criterions for which the RPL standard pro- tocol has been designed. We justify the usage of this routing protocol over our PLC solution, and validate its implementation through 2 experiments conducted in tertiary types buildings. Respectively composed of 7 and 26 PLC nodes, results show that the routing topology created by RPL enable the coverage an entire floor of a tertiary building with a tree based topology and 3 hops maximum path length. We also show that the WPC technology exhibits a high connectivity between nodes and that the link quality is highly dynamic. Though, we observed that the routing topology was able to handle these variations. We point out the limitations of our PLC solution, which presents high delays and low throughput, creating high constraints on applications. Our sensor network solution over PLC relies on the IP standard, enabling packets exchanges with other technologies using the same protocol. In particular, we study the possi- bility to create heterogeneous networks mixing the WPC technology with 802.15.4 radio. We show that our protocol stack used over PLC enable to create this type of network, in order to benefit from the best of these 2 worlds. We purpose an architecture of a hybrid Radio / PLC node enabling to transfer packets between these 2 media. Then, we show that the combined usage of these 2 media increase the number of available paths and facilitate the routing, while diminishing the number of hops and possible unreachability of nodes. We then demonstrate that the addition of PLC and Radio/PLC nodes in a RF based battery powered sensor network enable to relieve their routing charge in order to expand their lifetime. We then continue the energy study with a power consumption optimization of a wireless sensor network platform from the hardware and software standpoint. We first determine the operating frequency, the wake up frequency and the mode of operation of the micro controller offering the lowest power consump- tion. We then conduct an energy study of 4 different radio transceivers using the 2.4 GHz and 868 MHz frequency band, in order to determine the most efficient architecture. We determine the protocols parameters and the software optimization to reach the lower power consumption of this architecture. Finally, we realize the energy study of several probes than can be embedded on the node, according to their nature and functioning mode. Our final architecture exhibits a total power consumption that is lower than 17 μW, with an applicative reporting each 10 minutes and the maintenance of the reachability with the network. We also mention in annex parts our implication in standards developments organizations such as the IETF a the IPSO alliance, that allow us to validate the implementation of our solution through interoperability events.Cette thèse démontre la pertinence de l’utilisation du Courant Porteur en Ligne (CPL) pour des applications de réseaux de capteurs. Nous nous focalisons sur la technologie basse consomma- tion et bas débit "WPC" développée par la société Watteco et nous montrons que son utilisation est justifiée pour des applications de réseaux de capteurs. Nous situons la solution WPC dans le paysage du CPL et déterminons les protocoles compatibles. Nous décrivons ensuite l’implé- mentation du module WPC et du média CPL dans le simulateur de réseau COOJA afin de proposer une solution réseau reposant sur l’adaptation du standard 802.15.4 sur la technologie WPC. Nous démontrons ensuite l’intérêt de la convergence des médias au niveau réseau par l’utilisation du standard IPv6, que nous adaptons sur notre solution CPL grâce au protocole 6LoWPAN. Nous justifions l’utilisation des protocoles standards de l’IETF sur notre solution CPL et nous montrons qu’une solution de routage sur CPL doit être développée. Nous montrons par des expérimentations que notre solution CPL correspond aux critères des réseaux basse puis- sance et supportant les pertes de transmissions (LLNs) pour lesquels le protocole standard RPL a été conçu. Nous justifions l’utilisation de ce protocole sur CPL, et validons son implémenta- tion dans le cadre de 2 expérimentations. Formées respectivement de 7 puis 26 noeuds CPL, les résultats montrent que le routage créé par RPL permet de couvrir un étage d’un bâtiment avec une topologie de type arbre et une profondeur de 3 sauts maximum. Nous montrons également que la technologie WPC permet une connectivité importante entre les noeuds du réseau et que la qualité des liens est fortement dynamique, mais que le routage permet de s’adapter à ces variations. Nous pointons également les limites de notre solution CPL qui présente des délais importants et des débits faibles, générant de contraintes fortes sur les applications. Notre solu- tion de réseau de capteur sur CPL repose sur le standard IP, permettant des échanges de paquets avec d’autres technologies. Nous étudions ainsi la possibilité de créer des réseaux hétérogènes mélangeant la technologie WPC et radio 802.15.4. Nous montrons que notre pile protocolaire permet la création de ce type de réseau, afin de profiter du meilleur des 2 mondes. Nous décri- vons ainsi l’architecture d’un noeud hybride Radio Fréquence (RF) / CPL permettant de faire transiter les paquets entre ces 2 médias. Nous montrons ensuite que l’utilisation combinée de ces 2 médias augmente le nombre de chemins disponibles et permet de faciliter le routage, en diminuant le nombre de sauts et le risque que certains noeuds du réseau soient inaccessibles. Nous démontrons ensuite que l’injection de noeuds CPL et RF/CPL dans un réseau formé de noeuds RF sur batterie permet de les délester de leur charge de routage afin de prolonger leur durée de vie. Nous présentons ensuite une optimisation énergétique matérielle et logicielle d’un noeud radio. Nous déterminons les paramètres des protocoles et les optimisations logicielles per- mettant de tirer au mieux partie de cette architecture et nous réalisons l’étude énergétique de la sonde embarquée sur le noeud. Au final, notre architecture présente une consommation totale inférieure à 17 μW. Nous indiquons dans les annexes nos implications dans les organismes de standardisation qui ont permis de valider l’implémentation

CACIC 2015 : XXI Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación. Libro de actas

Actas del XXI Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación (CACIC 2015), realizado en Sede UNNOBA Junín, del 5 al 9 de octubre de 2015.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI