Classification of EAP methods and Some Major Attacks on EAP

This paper presents an overview of authentication protocol and analysis of Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and its place in securing network. In general, authentication procedure adds extra messages to the original message flow and results in throughput reduction/ increase in processing time. Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is a framework which aims to provide a flexible authentication for wireless networks. A number of specific widely used EAP methods are examined and evaluated for their advantages and susceptibility to types of attack. In addition, we evaluate how we communicate between two entities over the network

Security of Eduroam Passwords

Tartu Ülikool on otsustanud, et ülikooli traadita ühenduse kasutajanimi ja parool peab ühtima ülikooli kontos kasutusel oleva kasutajanime ja parooliga. See tähendab, et juhul kui ülikooli eduroam võrgul leidub mõni nõrkus, on seda potentsiaalselt võimalik ära kasutada kasutajate ülikooli kontole ligipääsuks. Antud uurimistöö on avastanud ühe sellise nõrkuse, milles luuakse võltsitud traadita ühenduse pääsupunkt, et saada kätte kasutaja autentimiseks kasutatava protokolli kasutajapoolset vastust. Selle vastuse põhjal on ründajal võimalik kätte saada kasutaja parooli räsi, mida on omakorda võimalik kasutada Tartu Ülikooli Samba serveriga autentimiseks. Antud uurimistöö sisaldab eduroami ning rünnakus vaja minevate protokollide kirjeldusi ning ettepanekuid, kuidas Tartu Ülikooli eduroami turvalisemaks muuta.The University of Tartu has decided that the university's eduroam accounts will share the same user credentials as the rest of the university's services. This could potentially be abused by exploiting weaknesses in wireless security in order to gain access to a user's university account. The aim of this research was to uncover any such weaknesses. In the course of the research, an attack was discovered, which uses a spoofed access point to capture a handshake between the user and the authenticator, which can be used to retrieve a hash of the user's password. That hash is then used to authenticate to the university's Samba server. The thesis also provides the reader with details on how eduroam and the protocols used in the attack work, and discusses potential improvements to strengthen the security of Tartu University's eduroam

ZERO KNOWLEDGE PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL

In many applications, the password is sent as cleartext to the server to be authenticated thus providing the eavesdropper with opportunity to steal valuable data. This paper presents a simple protocol based on zero knowledge proof by which the user can prove to the authentication server that he has the password without having to send the password to the server as either cleartext or in encrypted format. Thus the user can authenticate himself without having to actually reveal the password to the server. Also, another version of this protocol has been proposed which makes use of public key cryptography thus adding one more level of security to the protocol and enabling mutual authentication between the client & server

Enhanced Quality of Experience Based on Enriched Network Centric and Access Control Mechanisms

In the digital world service provisioning in user satisfying quality has become the goal of any content or network provider. Besides having satisfied and therefore, loyal users, the creation of sustainable revenue streams is the most important issue for network operators [1], [2], [3]. The motivation of this work is to enhance the quality of experience of users when they connect to the Internet, request application services as well as to maintain full service when these users are on the move in WLAN based access networks. In this context, the aspect of additional revenue creation for network operators is considered as well. The enhancements presented in this work are based on enriched network centric and access control mechanisms which will be achieved in three different areas of networks capabilities, namely the network performance, the network access and the network features themselves. In the area of network performance a novel authentication and authorisation method is introduced which overcomes the drawback of long authentication time in the handover procedure as required by the generic IEEE 802.1X process using the EAP-TLS method. The novel sequential authentication solution reduces the communication interruption time in a WLAN handover process of currently several hundred milliseconds to some milliseconds by combining the WPA2 PSK and the WPA2 EAP-TLS. In the area of usability a new user-friendly hotspot registration and login mechanisms is presented which significantly simplifies how users obtain WLAN hotspot login credentials and logon to a hotspot. This novel barcode initiated hotspot auto-login solution obtains user credentials through a simple SMS and performs an auto-login process that avoids the need to enter user name and password on the login page manually. In the area of network features a new system is proposed which overcomes the drawback that users are not aware of the quality in which a service can be provided prior to starting the service. This novel graceful denial of service solution informs the user about the expected application service quality before the application service is started

WI-FI ALLIANCE HOTSPOT 2.0 SPECIFICATION BASED NETWORK DISCOVERY, SELECTION, AUTHENTICATION, DEPLOYMENT AND FUNCTIONALITY TESTS.

The demand for high mobile data transmission has been dramatically enlarged since there is a significant increase at the number of mobile communication devices that capable of providing high data rates. It is clearly observed that even the next generation cellular networks are not able to respond to this demand to provide the required level of mobile data transmission capacity. Although, WLAN responses to this demand by providing upwards of 600 Mbps data rates it is not convenient in terms of cellular like mobility and requires user intervention anytime of reconnection to a hotspot. Therefore, the need for a new technology took place and IEEE has introduced a new amendment to IEEE 802.11 standards family which is called as IEEE 802.11u. Based on IEEE 802.11u amendment, WFA developed WFA Hotspot 2.0 Specification and started to certify the Wi-Fi devices under Passpoint certification program. This new technology developed to provide Wi-Fi capable devices simply identify, select and associate to a Hotspot without any user intervention in a highly secure manner. As Hotspot 2.0 Specification is quite new in the market it has been a challenging work to reach some academic papers; however, IEEE 802.11u standard, Internet sources, white papers published by different companies/organizations and discussions with telecommunication experts have made this master thesis to achieve its goals. This thesis work provides a great resource for the network operators to have a great understanding of the Hotspot 2.0 Specification in terms of theory, network element requirements and deployment by providing a good understanding of the system functionality. In this paper, a comprehensive theoretical background that addresses to WLAN technology, Passpoint elements, and IEEE 802.11u based network discovery, selection and authentication is provided. Besides, Hotspot 2.0 network deployment scenarios with network core element requirements are designed and Passpoint functionality tests are performed under different scenarios by describing a comprehensive setup for the testing.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

A Formal Security Analysis of an OSA/Parlay Authentication Interface

Abstract. We report on an experience in analyzing the security of the Trust and Security Management (TSM) protocol, an authentication procedure within the OSA/Parlay Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of the Open Service Access and Parlay Group. The experience has been conducted jointly by research institutes experienced in security and industry experts in telecommunication networking. OSA/Parlay APIs are designed to enable the creation of telecommunication applications outside the traditional network space and business model. Network operators consider the OSA/Parlay a promising architecture to stimulate the development of web service applications by third party providers, which may not necessarily be experts in telecommunication and security. The TSM protocol is executed by the gateways to OSA/Parlay networks; its role is to authenticate client applications trying to access the interfaces of some object representing an offered network capability. For this reason, potential security flaws in the TSM authentication strategy can cause the unauthorized use of the network, with evident damages to the operator and the quality of services. We report a rigorous formal analysis of the TSM specification, which is originally given in UML. Furthermore, we illustrate our design choices to obtain the formal model, describe the tool-aided verification and finally expose the security flaws discovered

An Overview of Cryptography (Updated Version, 3 March 2016)

There are many aspects to security and many applications, ranging from secure commerce and payments to private communications and protecting passwords. One essential aspect for secure communications is that of cryptography...While cryptography is necessary for secure communications, it is not by itself sufficient. This paper describes the first of many steps necessary for better security in any number of situations. A much shorter, edited version of this paper appears in the 1999 edition of Handbook on Local Area Networks published by Auerbach in September 1998

Network Access Control: Disruptive Technology?

Network Access Control (NAC) implements policy-based access control to the trusted network. It regulates entry to the network by the use of health verifiers and policy control points to mitigate the introduction of malicious software. However the current versions of NAC may not be the universal remedy to endpoint security that many vendors tout. Many organizations that are evaluating the technology, but that have not yet deployed a solution, believe that NAC presents an opportunity for severe disruption of their networks. A cursory examination of the technologies used and how they are deployed in the network appears to support this argument. The addition of NAC components can make the network architecture even more complex and subject to failure. However, one recent survey of organizations that have deployed a NAC solution indicates that the \u27common wisdom\u27 about NAC may not be correct

Security technologies for wireless access to local area networks

In today’s world, computers and networks are connected to all life aspects and professions. The amount of information, personal and organizational, spread over the network is increasing exponentially. Simultaneously, malicious attacks are being developed at the same speed, which makes having a secure network system a crucial factor on every level and in any organization. Achieving a high protection level has been the goal of many organizations, such as the Wi-Fi Alliance R , and many standards and protocols have been developed over time. This work addresses the historical development of WLAN security technologies, starting from the oldest standard, WEP, and reaching the newly released standard WPA3, passing through the several versions in between,WPA, WPS, WPA2, and EAP. Along with WPA3, this work addresses two newer certificates, Enhanced OpenTM and Easy ConnectTM. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the previous standards is also presented, detailing their security mechanisms, flaws, attacks, and the measures they have adopted to prevent these attacks. Focusing on the new released WPA3, this work presents a deep study on both WPA3 and EAP-pwd. The development of WPA3 had the objective of providing strong protection, even if the network’s password is considered weak. However, this objective was not fully accomplished and some recent research work discovered design flaws in this new standard. Along with the above studies, this master thesis’ work builds also a network for penetration testing using a set of new devices that support the new standard. A group of possible attacks onWi-Fi latest security standards was implemented on the network, testing the response against each of them, discussing the reason behind the success or the failure of the attack, and providing a set of countermeasures applicable against these attacks. Obtained results show that WPA3 has overcome many of WPA2’s issues, however, it is still unable to overcome some major Wi-Fi vulnerabilities.No mundo de hoje, os computadores e as redes estão conectados praticamente a todos os aspectos da nossa vida pessoal e profissional. A quantidade de informações, pessoais e organizacionais, espalhadas pela rede está a aumentar exponencialmente. Simultaneamente, também os ataques maliciosos estão a aumentar à mesma velocidade, o que faz com que um sistema de rede seguro seja um fator crucial a todos os níveis e em qualquer organização. Alcançar altos níveis de proteção tem sido o objetivo de trabalho de muitas organizações, como a Wi-Fi Alliance R , tendo muitos standards e protocolos sido desenvolvidos ao longo do tempo. Este trabalho aborda o desenvolvimento histórico das tecnologias de segurança para WLANs, começando pelo standard mais antigo, WEP, e acabando no recém-chegado WPA3, passando pelas várias versões intermedias, WPA, WPS, WPA2 e EAP. Juntamente com o WPA3, este trabalho aborda os dois certificados mais recentes, Enhanced OpenTM e Easy ConnectTM. Além disso, também é apresentada uma análise comparativa dos standards anteriores, detalhando os seus principais mecanismos de segurança, falhas, ataques a que são susceptíveis e medidas adotadas para evitar esses ataques. Quanto ao novo WPA3 e EAP-pwd, este trabalho apresenta um estudo aprofundado sobre os seus modos "Personal" e "Enterprise". O desenvolvimento do WPA3 teve por objetivo fornecer proteção forte, mesmo que a password de rede seja considerada fraca. No entanto, esse objetivo não foi totalmente alcançado e alguma investigação realizada recentemente detectou falhas de desenho nesse novo padrão. Juntamente com os estudo dos standards acima referidos, o trabalho realizado para esta tese de mestrado também constrói uma rede para testes de penetração usando um conjunto de novos dispositivos que já suportam o novo standard. São aplicados vários ataques aos mais recentes padrões de segurança Wi-Fi, é testada a sua resposta contra cada um deles, é discutindo o motivo que justifica o sucesso ou a falha do ataque, e são indicadas contramedidas aplicáveis a esses ataques. Os resultados obtidos mostram que o WPA3 superou muitos dos problemas do WPA2 mas que, no entanto, ainda é incapaz de superar algumas das vulnerabilidades presentes nas redes Wi-Fi.First, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who gave me the possibility to complete my study and get my Master degree, the Aga Khan Foundation, who has supported me financiall

Identity Management and Authorization Infrastructure in Secure Mobile Access to Electronic Health Records

We live in an age of the mobile paradigm of anytime/anywhere access, as the mobile device is the most ubiquitous device that people now hold. Due to their portability, availability, easy of use, communication, access and sharing of information within various domains and areas of our daily lives, the acceptance and adoption of these devices is still growing. However, due to their potential and raising numbers, mobile devices are a growing target for attackers and, like other technologies, mobile applications are still vulnerable. Health information systems are composed with tools and software to collect, manage, analyze and process medical information (such as electronic health records and personal health records). Therefore, such systems can empower the performance and maintenance of health services, promoting availability, readability, accessibility and data sharing of vital information about a patients overall medical history, between geographic fragmented health services. Quick access to information presents a great importance in the health sector, as it accelerates work processes, resulting in better time utilization. Additionally, it may increase the quality of care. However health information systems store and manage highly sensitive data, which raises serious concerns regarding patients privacy and safety, and may explain the still increasing number of malicious incidents reports within the health domain. Data related to health information systems are highly sensitive and subject to severe legal and regulatory restrictions, that aim to protect the individual rights and privacy of patients. Along side with these legislations, security requirements must be analyzed and measures implemented. Within the necessary security requirements to access health data, secure authentication, identity management and access control are essential to provide adequate means to protect data from unauthorized accesses. However, besides the use of simple authentication models, traditional access control models are commonly based on predefined access policies and roles, and are inflexible. This results in uniform access control decisions through people, different type of devices, environments and situational conditions, and across enterprises, location and time. Although already existent models allow to ensure the needs of the health care systems, they still lack components for dynamicity and privacy protection, which leads to not have desire levels of security and to the patient not to have a full and easy control of his privacy. Within this master thesis, after a deep research and review of the stat of art, was published a novel dynamic access control model, Socio-Technical Risk-Adaptable Access Control modEl (SoTRAACE), which can model the inherent differences and security requirements that are present in this thesis. To do this, SoTRAACE aggregates attributes from various domains to help performing a risk assessment at the moment of the request. The assessment of the risk factors identified in this work is based in a Delphi Study. A set of security experts from various domains were selected, to classify the impact in the risk assessment of each attribute that SoTRAACE aggregates. SoTRAACE was integrated in an architecture with requirements well-founded, and based in the best recommendations and standards (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), as well based in deep review of the state-of-art. The architecture is further targeted with the essential security analysis and the threat model. As proof of concept, the proposed access control model was implemented within the user-centric architecture, with two mobile prototypes for several types of accesses by patients and healthcare professionals, as well the web servers that handles the access requests, authentication and identity management. The proof of concept shows that the model works as expected, with transparency, assuring privacy and data control to the user without impact for user experience and interaction. It is clear that the model can be extended to other industry domains, and new levels of risks or attributes can be added because it is modular. The architecture also works as expected, assuring secure authentication with multifactor, and secure data share/access based in SoTRAACE decisions. The communication channel that SoTRAACE uses was also protected with a digital certificate. At last, the architecture was tested within different Android versions, tested with static and dynamic analysis and with tests with security tools. Future work includes the integration of health data standards and evaluating the proposed system by collecting users’ opinion after releasing the system to real world.Hoje em dia vivemos em um paradigma móvel de acesso em qualquer lugar/hora, sendo que os dispositivos móveis são a tecnologia mais presente no dia a dia da sociedade. Devido à sua portabilidade, disponibilidade, fácil manuseamento, poder de comunicação, acesso e partilha de informação referentes a várias áreas e domínios das nossas vidas, a aceitação e integração destes dispositivos é cada vez maior. No entanto, devido ao seu potencial e aumento do número de utilizadores, os dispositivos móveis são cada vez mais alvos de ataques, e tal como outras tecnologias, aplicações móveis continuam a ser vulneráveis. Sistemas de informação de saúde são compostos por ferramentas e softwares que permitem recolher, administrar, analisar e processar informação médica (tais como documentos de saúde eletrónicos). Portanto, tais sistemas podem potencializar a performance e a manutenção dos serviços de saúde, promovendo assim a disponibilidade, acessibilidade e a partilha de dados vitais referentes ao registro médico geral dos pacientes, entre serviços e instituições que estão geograficamente fragmentadas. O rápido acesso a informações médicas apresenta uma grande importância para o setor da saúde, dado que acelera os processos de trabalho, resultando assim numa melhor eficiência na utilização do tempo e recursos. Consequentemente haverá uma melhor qualidade de tratamento. Porém os sistemas de informação de saúde armazenam e manuseiam dados bastantes sensíveis, o que levanta sérias preocupações referentes à privacidade e segurança do paciente. Assim se explica o aumento de incidentes maliciosos dentro do domínio da saúde. Os dados de saúde são altamente sensíveis e são sujeitos a severas leis e restrições regulamentares, que pretendem assegurar a proteção dos direitos e privacidade dos pacientes, salvaguardando os seus dados de saúde. Juntamente com estas legislações, requerimentos de segurança devem ser analisados e medidas implementadas. Dentro dos requerimentos necessários para aceder aos dados de saúde, uma autenticação segura, gestão de identidade e controlos de acesso são essenciais para fornecer meios adequados para a proteção de dados contra acessos não autorizados. No entanto, além do uso de modelos simples de autenticação, os modelos tradicionais de controlo de acesso são normalmente baseados em políticas de acesso e cargos pré-definidos, e são inflexíveis. Isto resulta em decisões de controlo de acesso uniformes para diferentes pessoas, tipos de dispositivo, ambientes e condições situacionais, empresas, localizações e diferentes alturas no tempo. Apesar dos modelos existentes permitirem assegurar algumas necessidades dos sistemas de saúde, ainda há escassez de componentes para accesso dinâmico e proteção de privacidade , o que resultam em níveis de segurança não satisfatórios e em o paciente não ter controlo directo e total sobre a sua privacidade e documentos de saúde. Dentro desta tese de mestrado, depois da investigação e revisão intensiva do estado da arte, foi publicado um modelo inovador de controlo de acesso, chamado SoTRAACE, que molda as diferenças de acesso inerentes e requerimentos de segurança presentes nesta tese. Para isto, o SoTRAACE agrega atributos de vários ambientes e domínios que ajudam a executar uma avaliação de riscos, no momento em que os dados são requisitados. A avaliação dos fatores de risco identificados neste trabalho são baseados num estudo de Delphi. Um conjunto de peritos de segurança de vários domínios industriais foram selecionados, para classificar o impacto de cada atributo que o SoTRAACE agrega. O SoTRAACE foi integrado numa arquitectura para acesso a dados médicos, com requerimentos bem fundados, baseados nas melhores normas e recomendações (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), e em revisões intensivas do estado da arte. Esta arquitectura é posteriormente alvo de uma análise de segurança e modelos de ataque. Como prova deste conceito, o modelo de controlo de acesso proposto é implementado juntamente com uma arquitetura focada no utilizador, com dois protótipos para aplicações móveis, que providênciam vários tipos de acesso de pacientes e profissionais de saúde. A arquitetura é constituída também por servidores web que tratam da gestão de dados, controlo de acesso e autenticação e gestão de identidade. O resultado final mostra que o modelo funciona como esperado, com transparência, assegurando a privacidade e o controlo de dados para o utilizador, sem ter impacto na sua interação e experiência. Consequentemente este modelo pode-se extender para outros setores industriais, e novos níveis de risco ou atributos podem ser adicionados a este mesmo, por ser modular. A arquitetura também funciona como esperado, assegurando uma autenticação segura com multi-fator, acesso e partilha de dados segura baseado em decisões do SoTRAACE. O canal de comunicação que o SoTRAACE usa foi também protegido com um certificado digital. A arquitectura foi testada em diferentes versões de Android, e foi alvo de análise estática, dinâmica e testes com ferramentas de segurança. Para trabalho futuro está planeado a integração de normas de dados de saúde e a avaliação do sistema proposto, através da recolha de opiniões de utilizadores no mundo real