Survey on detecting and preventing web application broken access control attacks

Web applications are an essential component of the current wide range of digital services proposition including financial and governmental services as well as social networking and communications. Broken access control vulnerabilities pose a huge risk to that echo system because they allow the attacker to circumvent the allocated permissions and rights and perform actions that he is not authorized to perform. This paper gives a broad survey of the current research progress on approaches used to detect access control vulnerabilities exploitations and attacks in web application components. It categorizes these approaches based on their key techniques and compares the different detection methods in addition to evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. We also spotted and elaborated on some exciting research gaps found in the current literature, Finally, the paper summarizes the general detection approaches and suggests potential research directions for the future

Automation of Authorisation Vulnerability Detection in Authenticated Web Applications

In the beginning the World Wide Web, also known as the Internet, consisted mainly of websites. These were essentially information depositories containing static pages, with the flow of information mostly one directional, from the server to the user’s browser. Most of these websites didn’t authenticate users, instead, each user was treated the same, and presented with the same information. A malicious party that gained access to the web server hosting these websites would usually not gain access to confidential information as most of the information on the web server would already be accessible to the public. Instead, the malicious party would typically modify the files that are on the server in order to deface the website or use the server to host pirated materials. At present, the majority of websites available on the public internet are applications; these are highly functional and rely on two-way communication between the client’s browser and the web server hosting the application. The content on these applications is typically generated dynamically, and is often tailored towards each specific user, with much of the information dealt with being confidential in nature. A malicious party that compromises a web application, and gains access to confidential information which they normally should not be able to access, may be able to steal personal client information, commit financial fraud, or perform other malicious actions against those users whose personal information has been leaked. This thesis seeks to examine the access controls that are put in place across a variety of web applications that seek to prevent malicious parties from gaining access to confidential information they should not be able to access. It will test these access controls to ensure that they are robust enough for their purpose, and aims to automate this procedure

Secure Communication in Disaster Scenarios

Während Naturkatastrophen oder terroristischer Anschläge ist die bestehende Kommunikationsinfrastruktur häufig überlastet oder fällt komplett aus. In diesen Situationen können mobile Geräte mithilfe von drahtloser ad-hoc- und unterbrechungstoleranter Vernetzung miteinander verbunden werden, um ein Notfall-Kommunikationssystem für Zivilisten und Rettungsdienste einzurichten. Falls verfügbar, kann eine Verbindung zu Cloud-Diensten im Internet eine wertvolle Hilfe im Krisen- und Katastrophenmanagement sein. Solche Kommunikationssysteme bergen jedoch ernsthafte Sicherheitsrisiken, da Angreifer versuchen könnten, vertrauliche Daten zu stehlen, gefälschte Benachrichtigungen von Notfalldiensten einzuspeisen oder Denial-of-Service (DoS) Angriffe durchzuführen. Diese Dissertation schlägt neue Ansätze zur Kommunikation in Notfallnetzen von mobilen Geräten vor, die von der Kommunikation zwischen Mobilfunkgeräten bis zu Cloud-Diensten auf Servern im Internet reichen. Durch die Nutzung dieser Ansätze werden die Sicherheit der Geräte-zu-Geräte-Kommunikation, die Sicherheit von Notfall-Apps auf mobilen Geräten und die Sicherheit von Server-Systemen für Cloud-Dienste verbessert

TAXONOMY OF SECURITY AND PRIVACY ISSUES IN SERVERLESS COMPUTING

The advent of cloud computing has led to a new era of computer usage. Networking and physical security are some of the IT infrastructure concerns that IT administrators around the world had to worry about for their individual environments. Cloud computing took away that burden and redefined the meaning of IT administrators. Serverless computing as it relates to secure software development is creating the same kind of change. Developers can quickly spin up a secure development environment in a matter of minutes without having to worry about any of the underlying infrastructure setups. In the paper, we will look at the merits and demerits of serverless computing, what is drawing the demand for serverless computing among developers, the security and privacy issues of serverless technology, and detail the parameters to consider when setting up and using a secure development environment based on serverless computin

Automated Security Testing for Identity Management of Large-scale Digital Infrastructures

Ensuring the security of an organization's digital assets against cyber threats is critical in today's technology-driven world. Regular security testing is one of the measures that can help assess the effectiveness of security controls, identify vulnerabilities, and strengthen the overall cybersecurity posture. Identity Management (IdM) protocols such as Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0, OpenID Connect, and OAuth 2.0 play a crucial role in protecting against identity theft, fraud, and security breaches. Also, following the Best Current Practices introduced by the standards to enhance the security of IdM protocols is essential to minimize the risk of unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security threats and to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, and build trust with users and stakeholders. However, deploying these protocols can be challenging due to the complexity in designing, developing and implementing cryptographic mechanisms. The implementation of IdM protocols encounters three significant obstacles: fragmented security information, rapidly evolving threat environment, and the need for a controlled testing environment. Security testers must stay up-to-date with emerging threats and establish an appropriate testing infrastructure to guarantee the security and robustness of IdM implementations, while also minimizing the possibility of security incidents that could adversely affect operations. Automated security testing plays a crucial role in addressing security concerns, particularly as the intricate functional aspects of IdM solutions contribute to their complexity. It is essential to prioritize automation to bridge the cybersecurity skills gap among IT professionals. In this thesis, we propose Micro-Id-Gym (MIG), a framework that offers (i) an easy way to configure and reproduce the IdM production environment in a sandbox, allowing hands-on experiences with potentially impactful security tests that may winder availability of services and (ii) automatic security testing of IdM implementations together with suggestions for mitigations to avoid identified vulnerabilities. MIG provides a set of security testing tools for creating, executing, and analyzing security test cases through MIG-L, a declarative test specification language. We have evaluated the effectiveness of MIG by conducting experiments to assess the accuracy in supporting detection of relevant vulnerabilities in the implementation of IdM protocols. We utilized MIG to conduct security analyses across various corporate scenarios and projects, identifying vulnerabilities and responsibly disclosing them through bug bounty programs. Our findings were recognized by the providers, who awarded us both monetary compensation and public recognition. Overall, MIG can help organizations establish a robust and agile security testing strategy, supported by suitable infrastructure and testing procedures, that can ensure the security and resilience of their IdM implementations

Data Protection with Ethereum Blockchain

Blockchain technology has been one of the most promising technologies of the past decade, with Ethereum and Bitcoin being the two most popular Blockchains today. Both do not provide data protection and privacy by default. The former allows for Decentralized Applications (DApps) to be built, with zero chance of downtime or censorship and is the main focus of this dissertation. The European Union approved a law in 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), with severe penalties being enforced since May 25th, 2018. It is considered a massive step toward protecting user data. Not only does it affect companies with offices in the EU, but also organizations throughout the world that have users from EU territories. Further, it stipulates key obligations for organizations handling user data, in addition to introducing new rights to individuals, such as the right to erasure. This represents a major challenge towards achieving GDPR compliance in DApps, as Blockchains such as Ethereum, are immutable by design. This dissertation’s work attempts to comply with the GDPR and its conflicting right to erasure, by developing an Ethereum proof-of-concept DApp: DFiles, which also aims to provide some form of data privacy and protection. It also allows its users to upload encrypted files in addition to their download and decryption. It was developed using an Agile methodology in an iterative approach with mainly decentralized technologies, such as the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and Ethereum smart contracts, with a centralized component for user authentication, while adhering to Blockchain Software Engineering. Due to the GDPR’s complexity, some parts were selected, namely the rights to erasure, data portability, access and rectification. DFiles GDPR compliance was then evaluated with a statistical analysis on user encrypted and unencrypted uploaded files in the DApp, with its elapsed upload times and Ethereum transaction costs measured for files separated into four categories: small (1KB-1MB), medium (1MB-20MB), large (20MB-200MB) and extra-large (200MB-2GB). However, due to hardware limitations, this statistical analysis could only be performed for files up to 14.2MB. It concluded that transaction costs for unencrypted files are slightly higher, although this increase is not significant. As for elapsed upload times, it found that the elapsed upload time in encrypted files was overall significantly higher. Data from files larger than 14.2MB was still recorded which determined that the last two elapsed upload times for unencrypted files up to 800MB, are less than the last two upload elapsed times for encrypted ones up to 14.2MB. In conclusion, encrypting files to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation’s right to erasure is a valuable option only for small to medium files up to 14.2MB. From there, without considering hardware encryption limitations, upload times tend to grow exponentially. Ethereum and the IPFS must advance to allow better privacy techniques. Recently, there have been major new improvements to Ethereum and its smart contracts; the world of DApp development is always changing at a fast rate. In the future, Ethereum might evolve to a newer version which may bring new and enhanced privacy controls which may allow its complete GDPR compliance.A tecnologia de Blockchain tem sido uma das mais promisoras da última década, com Ethereum e Bitcoin como as duas Blockchains mais conhecidas atualmente, em que ambas têm o problema de não fornecer, por defeito, a proteção de dados e a sua consequente privacidade. O Ethereum, o principal foco desta dissertação, permite desenvolver Aplicações Descentralizadas (DApps) com a impossibilidade de estarem offline ou serem alvos de censura. A União Europeia (EU) aprovou o Regulamento Geral sobre a Proteção de Dados (RGPD) em 2016, com penalizações apenas a serem aplicadas no dia 25 de Maio de 2018. Este regulamento é considerado um passo gigante para proteger a informação e os dados dos utilizadores, visto que este não afeta apenas organizações com escritórios na EU, mas também empresas no mundo todo que tenham clientes em territórios da União Europeia. Além disto, o regulamento estipula novas obrigações para organizações que manuseiam dados dos seus utilizadores, além de introduzir novos direitos para os mesmos, como o direito de apagamento dos dados. Este direito representa um desafio enorme para conseguir cumprir estritamente com o RGPD nas DApps, visto que as Blockchains como o Ethereum são, no seu design, imutáveis. O trabalho desenvolvido nesta dissertação tenta cumprir com o RGPD e o seu direito problemático ao apagamento dos, ao desenvolver uma prova de conceito, uma DApp em Ethereum: DFiles, em que esta visa fornecer alguma maneira de proteger os dados dos seus utilizadores e também a sua privacidade. Além disto, também permite que os seus utilizadores submetam ficheiros encriptados além de os conseguirem desencriptar quando o seu download é efetuado. Foi também desenvolvida com uma metodologia Agile, com uma abordagem por iterações usando na maioria tecnologias descentralizadas, como por exemplo o Interplanetary File System (IPFS) e os contratos inteligentes do Ethereum, contando também com uma componente centralizada para efeitos de autenticação de utilizadores, ao mesmo tempo que adere à Engenharia de Desenvolvimento de Software para Blockchain (BOSE). Devido à complexidade do RGPD, apenas alguns dos seus aspetos foram selecionados para a sua implementação no DFiles como os direitos de apagamento dos dados, portabilidade, acesso e retificação. O cumprimento do RGPD na DFiles DApp foi avaliado com recurso a uma análise estatística nos ficheiros encriptados e não encriptados submetidos pelos seus utilizadores, em que foram medidos o tempo gasto no seu upload e o custo total de transação em Ethereum, em ficheiros de quatro categorias diferentes: pequenos (1KB-1MB), médios (1MB-20MB), grandes (20MB-200MB) e muito grandes (200MB-2GB). No entanto, por limitações de hardware, esta análise estatística apenas foi feita para ficheiros até 14.2MB de tamanho. Pode ser concluído que os custos de transação para ficheiros não encriptados são ligeiramente superiores, apesar deste aumento não ser significativo. Além disto, esta análise também concluiu que o tempo gasto nos ficheiros encriptados é substancialmente maior. Os dados dos ficheiros com tamanho superior a 14.2MB foram também registados. Ao compararmos os últimos dois registos dos ficheiros desencriptados, até 800MB de tamanho, concluímos que o seu tempo gasto é inferior aos útlimos dois registos para ficheiros encriptados até 14.2MB de tamanho. Finalmente, pode-se concluir que encriptar ficheiros para cumprir com o direito ao apagamento de dados do RGPD é uma possível abordagem apenas para ficheiros pequenos e médios até 14.2MB de tamanho. A partir desta fase, e sem considerar limitações de hardware, os tempos gastos para upload de ficheiros encriptados tendem a aumentar exponencialmente. Assim sendo, o Ethereum e o IPFS têm obrigatoriamente que melhorar a sua tecnologia num futuro próximo para permitir novas e melhores técnicas de privacidade dos dados. Recentemente, têm existido melhoramentos significativos no Ethereum e os seus contratos inteligentes que fazem com que o mundo do desenvolvimento de DApps se faça a um ritmo muito elevado. No futuro, o Ethereum poderá evoluir numa nova versão que poderá também trazer novos melhoramentos e controlos de privacidade que poderão permitir o cumprimento na totalidade do RGPD

Security assessment of open source third-parties applications

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) components are ubiquitous in both proprietary and open source applications. In this dissertation we discuss challenges that large software vendors face when they must integrate and maintain FOSS components into their software supply chain. Each time a vulnerability is disclosed in a FOSS component, a software vendor must decide whether to update the component, patch the application itself, or just do nothing as the vulnerability is not applicable to the deployed version that may be old enough to be not vulnerable. This is particularly challenging for enterprise software vendors that consume thousands of FOSS components, and offer more than a decade of support and security fixes for applications that include these components. First, we design a framework for performing security vulnerability experimentations. In particular, for testing known exploits for publicly disclosed vulnerabilities against different versions and software configurations. Second, we provide an automatic screening test for quickly identifying the versions of FOSS components likely affected by newly disclosed vulnerabilities: a novel method that scans across the entire repository of a FOSS component in a matter of minutes. We show that our screening test scales to large open source projects. Finally, for facilitating the global security maintenance of a large portfolio of FOSS components, we discuss various characteristics of FOSS components and their potential impact on the security maintenance effort, and empirically identify the key drivers

An Investigation into Possible Attacks on HTML5 IndexedDB and their Prevention

This thesis presents an analysis of, and enhanced security model for IndexedDB, the persistent HTML5 browser-based data store. In versions of HTML prior to HTML5, web sites used cookies to track user preferences locally. Cookies are however limited both in file size and number, and must also be added to every HTTP request, which increases web traffic unnecessarily. Web functionality has however increased significantly since cookies were introduced by Netscape in 1994. Consequently, web developers require additional capabilities to keep up with the evolution of the World Wide Web and growth in eCommerce. The response to this requirement was the IndexedDB API, which became an official W3C recommendation in January 2015. The IndexedDB API includes an Object Store, indices, and cursors and so gives HTML5 - compliant browsers a transactional database capability. Furthermore, once downloaded, IndexedDB data stores do not require network connectivity. This permits mobile web- based applications to work without a data connection. Such IndexedDB data stores will be used to store customer data, they will inevitably become targets for attackers. This thesis firstly argues that the design of IndexedDB makes it unavoidably insecure. That is, every implementation is vulnerable to attacks such as Cross Site Scripting, and even data that has been deleted from databases may be stolen using appropriate software tools. This is demonstrated experimentally on both mobile and desktop browsers. IndexedDB is however capable of high performance even when compared to servers running optimized local databases. This is demonstrated through the development of a formal performance model. The performance predictions for IndexedDB were tested experimentally, and the results showed high conformance over a range of usage scenarios. This implies that IndexedDB is potentially a useful HTML5 API if the security issues can be addressed. In the final component of this thesis, we propose and implement enhancements that correct the security weaknesses identified in IndexedDB. The enhancements use multifactor authentication, and so are resistant to Cross Site Scripting attacks. This enhancement is then demonstrated experimentally, showing that HTML5 IndexedDB may be used securely both online and offline. This implies that secure, standards compliant browser based applications with persistent local data stores may both feasible and efficient

A distributed middleware for IT/OT convergence in modern industrial environments

The modern industrial environment is populated by a myriad of intelligent devices that collaborate for the accomplishment of the numerous business processes in place at the production sites. The close collaboration between humans and work machines poses new interesting challenges that industry must overcome in order to implement the new digital policies demanded by the industrial transition. The Industry 5.0 movement is a companion revolution of the previous Industry 4.0, and it relies on three characteristics that any industrial sector should have and pursue: human centrality, resilience, and sustainability. The application of the fifth industrial revolution cannot be completed without moving from the implementation of Industry 4.0-enabled platforms. The common feature found in the development of this kind of platform is the need to integrate the Information and Operational layers. Our thesis work focuses on the implementation of a platform addressing all the digitization features foreseen by the fourth industrial revolution, making the IT/OT convergence inside production plants an improvement and not a risk. Furthermore, we added modular features to our platform enabling the Industry 5.0 vision. We favored the human centrality using the mobile crowdsensing techniques and the reliability and sustainability using pluggable cloud computing services, combined with data coming from the crowd support. We achieved important and encouraging results in all the domains in which we conducted our experiments. Our IT/OT convergence-enabled platform exhibits the right performance needed to satisfy the strict requirements of production sites. The multi-layer capability of the framework enables the exploitation of data not strictly coming from work machines, allowing a more strict interaction between the company, its employees, and customers