Trusted Execution Development: Designing a Secure, High-Performance Remote Attestation Protocol

Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) are a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology that allow programs to protect execution process and data from other processes on the platform. We propose a method to combine SGX attestation with Transport Layer Security (TLS). Doing so will combine guarantees about the program, runtime environment, and machine identity into a normal TLS handshake. We implemented a basic server using SGX/TLS and provide performance details and lessons learned during development

A Messy State of the Union: Taming the Composite State Machines of TLS

To appearInternational audienceImplementations of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol must handle a variety of protocol versions and extensions, authentication modes, and key exchange methods. Confusingly, each combination may prescribe a different message sequence between the client and the server. We address the problem of designing a robust composite state machine that correctly multiplexes between these different protocol modes. We systematically test popular open-source TLS implementations for state machine bugs and discover several critical security vulnerabilities that have lain hidden in these libraries for years, and have now finally been patched due to our disclosures. Several of these vulnerabilities, including the recently publicized FREAK flaw, enable a network attacker to break into TLS connections between authenticated clients and servers. We argue that state machine bugs stem from incorrect compositions of individually correct state machines. We present the first verified implementation of a composite TLS state machine in C that can be embedded into OpenSSL and accounts for all its supported ciphersuites. Our attacks expose the need for the formal verifica- tion of core components in cryptographic protocol libraries; our implementation demonstrates that such mechanized proofs are within reach, even for mainstream TLS implementations

A Formal TLS Handshake Model in LNT

Testing of network services represents one of the biggest challenges in cyber security. Because new vulnerabilities are detected on a regular basis, more research is needed. These faults have their roots in the software development cycle or because of intrinsic leaks in the system specification. Conformance testing checks whether a system behaves according to its specification. Here model-based testing provides several methods for automated detection of shortcomings. The formal specification of a system behavior represents the starting point of the testing process. In this paper, a widely used cryptographic protocol is specified and tested for conformance with a test execution framework. The first empirical results are presented and discussed.Comment: In Proceedings MARS/VPT 2018, arXiv:1803.0866

Options for Securing RTP Sessions

The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) is used in a large number of different application domains and environments. This heterogeneity implies that different security mechanisms are needed to provide services such as confidentiality, integrity, and source authentication of RTP and RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) packets suitable for the various environments. The range of solutions makes it difficult for RTP-based application developers to pick the most suitable mechanism. This document provides an overview of a number of security solutions for RTP and gives guidance for developers on how to choose the appropriate security mechanism

Reflections on security options for the real-time transport protocol framework

The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) supports a range of video conferencing, telephony, and streaming video ap- plications, but offers few native security features. We discuss the problem of securing RTP, considering the range of applications. We outline why this makes RTP a difficult protocol to secure, and describe the approach we have recently proposed in the IETF to provide security for RTP applications. This approach treats RTP as a framework with a set of extensible security building blocks, and prescribes mandatory-to-implement security at the level of different application classes, rather than at the level of the media transport protocol

Performance analysis of next generation web access via satellite

Acknowledgements This work was partially funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 644334 (NEAT). The views expressed are solely those of the author(s).Peer reviewedPostprin