Analyzing CNN Based Behavioural Malware Detection Techniques on Cloud IaaS

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is vulnerable to malware due to its exposure to external adversaries, making it a lucrative attack vector for malicious actors. A datacenter infected with malware can cause data loss and/or major disruptions to service for its users. This paper analyzes and compares various Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for online detection of malware in cloud IaaS. The detection is performed based on behavioural data using process level performance metrics including cpu usage, memory usage, disk usage etc. We have used the state of the art DenseNets and ResNets in effectively detecting malware in online cloud system. CNN are designed to extract features from data gathered from a live malware running on a real cloud environment. Experiments are performed on OpenStack (a cloud IaaS software) testbed designed to replicate a typical 3-tier web architecture. Comparative analysis is performed for different metrics for different CNN models used in this research

Plasma Homocysteine Concentration in Hemodialysis Patients of Kerman/Iran in 2005

Abstract: Introduction: Homocysteine is an aminoacid yielded from methionin to cysteine metabolism. Normal plasma concentration of homocysteine in human is between 5-15 μmol/l and an increase more than 5 μmol/l can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis and thrombosis. On the other hand in dialysis patients due to some reasons such as uremia, genetic factors, dialysis related factors and vitamin B group deficiency, the plasma level of homocysteine increases. This study was done to evaluate Plasma vitamin B12, Folic acid and homocysteine levels in kerman hemodialysis patients in comparison to healthy persons. Methods: In this cross-sectional study performed in two hemodialysis units of kerman-Iran, 25 hemodialysis patients and 25 healthy persons were studied. Blood samples were drawn prior to the dialysis session. The samples were centrifuged and the plasma was kept frozen at -20°C until analysis. Homocysteine level was determined by Gas-Chromatography and vitamin levels analysis were determined by radio assay method. Results: Mean homocysteine level in hemodialysis patients (19.7±8.8 μmol/l) showed significant difference (P=0.024) with healthy persons, homocysteine level (15.3±3 μmol/l). There were no relationship between the time passed since the first dialysis (p=0.188) and patients, age (p=0.419) with homocysteine levels. Plasma vitmin B12 and folic acid levels in hemodialysis patients were 4672±2379 pg/ml and 47±17 ng/ml respectively. These values were much more than those in healthy persons (959±409 Pmol/L and 14±12nmol/L respectively). Conclusion: Although homocysteine level in our patients was more than healthy persons, but it was lower than that of hemodialysis patients in other countries. This difference may be related to some factors such as genetic factors and administration of daily oral folic acid and Intravenous injection of B12 and B Complex after each dialysis session. Therefore this procedure is recommended in hemodialysis patients. Keywords: Homocysteine, Hemodialysis, Vitamin B12, Acid foli

The Efficacy of Amlodipine and Diltiazem in Cyclosporine Dose Adjustment with Respect to Trough and 2-hour Concentrations in Kidney Transplant Patients

Abstract: Background & Aims: Hypertension, hyperuricaemia and nephrotoxicity are some common side-effects of Cyclosporine A (CsA) treatment in renal transplant recipients. Previous studies suggest that Calcium Channel Blockers (CCB) can increase serum level of CsA and may improve graft function in patients receiving CsA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Diltiazem and Amlodipine on cyclosporine dose adjustment with respect to trough and 2-hour concentrations in renal transplant recipients treated with CsA. Methods: This observer-blind randomized clinical trial was performed on 120 renal transplant recipients treated with CsA. Patients received either Amlodipine (5-10mg/day) or Diltiazem (90-180mg/day) for 3 months and were compared with control group receiving no CCB. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, Post Hoc and Correlation tests. Results: Diltiazem significantly decreased CsA dosage (20%) from 162.03 ± 40.6 mg/dl to 128.5 ± 25.5 mg/dl (P=0.000) and Amlodipine, too, decreased it to 140.5 ± 22.3 mg/dl (13%) which was significant (P=0.008). Trough concentration in patients who had received Amlodipine were significantly higher than control group (P=0.019). Diltiazem significantly decreased Cholesterol Level (P=0.027) but other parameters were not significantly different between Amlodipine / Diltiazem and control groups. Discussion: Diltiazem and Amlodipine were well tolerated in co-administration with CsA with no adverse effect on graft function and did not affect blood pressure or heart rate. Our findings support that these two CCBs can be used in clinical settings to reduce the administered dose of cyclosporine. Keywords: Cyclosporine, Amlodipine, Diltiazem, Renal transplantatio

Trustworthy prevention of code injection in Linux on embedded devices

We present MProsper, a trustworthy system to prevent code injection in Linux on embedded devices. MProsper is a formally verified run-time monitor, which forces an untrusted Linux to obey the executable space protection policy; a memory area can be either executable or writable, but cannot be both. The executable space protection allows the MProsper’s monitor to intercept every change to the executable code performed by a user application or by the Linux kernel. On top of this infrastructure, we use standard code signing to prevent code injection. MProsper is deployed on top of the Prosper hypervisor and is implemented as an isolated guest. Thus MProsper inherits the security property verified for the hypervisor: (i) Its code and data cannot be tampered by the untrusted Linux guest and (ii) all changes to the memory layout is intercepted, thus enabling MProsper to completely mediate every operation that can violate the desired security property. The verification of the monitor has been performed using the HOL4 theorem prover and by extending the existing formal model of the hypervisor with the formal specification of the high level model of the monitor.QC 20160204</p