3,031 research outputs found
POWER-SUPPLaY: Leaking Data from Air-Gapped Systems by Turning the Power-Supplies Into Speakers
It is known that attackers can exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers
through their speakers via sonic and ultrasonic waves. To eliminate the threat
of such acoustic covert channels in sensitive systems, audio hardware can be
disabled and the use of loudspeakers can be strictly forbidden. Such audio-less
systems are considered to be \textit{audio-gapped}, and hence immune to
acoustic covert channels.
In this paper, we introduce a technique that enable attackers leak data
acoustically from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems. Our developed malware
can exploit the computer power supply unit (PSU) to play sounds and use it as
an out-of-band, secondary speaker with limited capabilities. The malicious code
manipulates the internal \textit{switching frequency} of the power supply and
hence controls the sound waveforms generated from its capacitors and
transformers. Our technique enables producing audio tones in a frequency band
of 0-24khz and playing audio streams (e.g., WAV) from a computer power supply
without the need for audio hardware or speakers. Binary data (files,
keylogging, encryption keys, etc.) can be modulated over the acoustic signals
and sent to a nearby receiver (e.g., smartphone). We show that our technique
works with various types of systems: PC workstations and servers, as well as
embedded systems and IoT devices that have no audio hardware at all. We provide
technical background and discuss implementation details such as signal
generation and data modulation. We show that the POWER-SUPPLaY code can operate
from an ordinary user-mode process and doesn't need any hardware access or
special privileges. Our evaluation shows that using POWER-SUPPLaY, sensitive
data can be exfiltrated from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems from a
distance of five meters away at a maximal bit rates of 50 bit/sec
Bowtie models as preventive models in maritime safety
Aquest treball ha sorgit d’una proposta del Dr. Rodrigo de Larrucea que ha acabat de publicar un llibre ambiciós sobre Seguretat Marítima. Com ell mateix diu, el tema “excedeix amb molt les potencialitats de l’autor”, així que en el meu cas això és més cert. Es pot aspirar, però, a fer una modesta contribució a l’estudi i difusió de la seguretat de la cultura marítima, que només apareix a les notícies quan tenen lloc desastres molt puntuals.
En qualsevol cas, el professor em va proposar que em centrés en els Bowtie Models, models en corbatí, que integren l’arbre de causes y el de conseqüències (en anglès el Fault Tree Analysis, FTA, i l’Event Tree Analysis, ETA). Certament, existeixen altres metodologies i aproximacions (i en el seu llibre en presenta vàries, resumides), però per la seva senzillesa conceptual i possibilitat de generalització i integració dels resultats era una bona aposta. Així, després d’una fase de meditació i recopilació de informació, em vaig decidir a presentar un model en corbatí molt general on caben les principals causes d’accidents (factores ambientals, error humà i fallada mecànica), comptant també que pot existir una combinació de causes.
De tota manera, a l’hora d’explotar aquest model existeix la gran dificultat de donar una probabilitat de ocurrència, un nombre entre 0 i 1, a cada branca. Normalment les probabilitats d’ocurrència són petites i degut a això difícils d’estimar. Cada accident és diferent, de grans catàstrofes n’hi ha poques, i cada accident ja és estudiat de manera exhaustiva (més exhaustiva quan més greu és). Un altre factor que dificulta l’estima de la probabilitat de fallada és l’evolució constant del món marítim, tant des del punt de vista tècnic, de formació, legal i fins i tot generacional doncs cada generació de marins és diferent. Els esforços estan doncs enfocats a augmentar la seguretat, encara que sempre amb un ull posat sobre els costs. Així, he presentat un model en corbatí pel seu valor didàctic i gràfic però sense entrar en detalls numèrics, que si s’escau ja aniré afinant i interioritzant en l’exercici de la professió.
En aquest treball també he intentat no mantenir-me totalment al costat de la teoria (ja se sap que si tot es fa bé, tot surt perfecte, etc…) sinó presentar amb cert detall 2 casos ben coneguts d’accidents marítims: el petroler Exxon Valdez, el 1989 i el ferry Estonia en 1994, entre altres esmentats. Són casos ja una mica vells però que van contribuir a augmentar la cultura de la seguretat, fins a arribar al nivell del que gaudim actualment, al menys als països occidentals. Doncs la seguretat, com esmenta Rodrigo de Larrucea “és una actitud i mai és fortuïta; sempre és el resultat d’una voluntat decidida, un esforç sincer, una direcció intel·ligent i una execució acurada. Sens lloc a dubtes, sempre suposa la millor alternativa”.
The work has been inspired in its initial aspects by the book of my tutor Jaime Rodrigo de Larrucea, that presents a state of the art of all the maritime aspects related to safety. Evidently, since it covers all the topics, it cannot deepen on every topic. It was my opportunity to deepen in the Bowtie Model but finally I have also covered a wide variety of topics.
Later, when I began to study the topics, I realized that the people in the maritime world usually do not understand to a great extent statistics. Everybody is concerned about safety but few nautical students take a probabilistic approach to the accidents. For this it is extremely important to study the population that is going to be studied: in our case the SOLAS ships
Also, during my time at Riga, I have been very concerned with the most diverse accidents, some of them studied during the courses at Barcelona. I have seen that it is difficult to model mathematically the accidents, since each one has different characteristics, angles, and surely there are not 2 equal.
Finally, it was accorded that I should concentrate on the Bowtie Model, which is not very complex from a statistical point of view. It is simply a fault tree of events model and a tree of effects. I present some examples in this Chapter 2. The difficulty I point out is to try to estimate the probabilities of occurrence of events that are unusual.
We concentrated at major accidents, those that may cause victims or heavy losses. Then, for the sake of generality, at Chapter 4, I have divided the causes in 4 great classes: Natural hazards, human factor, mechanical failure and attacks (piracy and terrorism). The last concern maybe should not be included beside the others since terrorism and piracy acts are not accidents, but since there is an important code dedicated to prevent security threats, ISPS, it is example of design of barriers to prevent an undesired event (although it gives mainly guidelines to follow by the States, Port Terminals and Shipping Companies). I have presented a detailed study of the tragedy of the Estonia, showing how a mechanical failure triggered the failure of the ferry, by its nature a delicate ship, but there were other factors such as poor maintenance and heavy seas.
At the next Chapter, certain characteristics of error chains are analyzed. Finally, the conclusions are drawn, offering a pretty optimistic view of the safety (and security) culture at the Western World but that may not easily permeate the entire World, due to the associated costs
Changing boundaries in Israeli higher education
This paper analyses the main changes that took place in the Israeli
higher education system in the last decades, and accounts for the reconstruction
of its external and internal boundaries. It also provides a conceptual framework
for comparing national higher education systems from a comparative perspective.
The paper examines the developments that characterise the restructuring of the
Israeli higher education from an international comparative outlook, and relates
to the following parameters: (a) expansion in size; (b) diversification of the higher
education institutions; (c) the emergence of new academic fields of study; (d) the
upgrade of many professions and occupations to an academic status; (e) the
redefinition of graduate degrees; (f) the impact of the new information
technologies on shaping academic environments; and (g) the influence of the
globalisation and internationalisation trends on the development of national
higher education systems.peer-reviewe
BitWhisper: Covert Signaling Channel between Air-Gapped Computers using Thermal Manipulations
It has been assumed that the physical separation (air-gap) of computers
provides a reliable level of security, such that should two adjacent computers
become compromised, the covert exchange of data between them would be
impossible. In this paper, we demonstrate BitWhisper, a method of bridging the
air-gap between adjacent compromised computers by using their heat emissions
and built-in thermal sensors to create a covert communication channel. Our
method is unique in two respects: it supports bidirectional communication, and
it requires no additional dedicated peripheral hardware. We provide
experimental results based on implementation of BitWhisper prototype, and
examine the channel properties and limitations. Our experiments included
different layouts, with computers positioned at varying distances from one
another, and several sensor types and CPU configurations (e.g., Virtual
Machines). We also discuss signal modulation and communication protocols,
showing how BitWhisper can be used for the exchange of data between two
computers in a close proximity (at distance of 0-40cm) at an effective rate of
1-8 bits per hour, a rate which makes it possible to infiltrate brief commands
and exfiltrate small amount of data (e.g., passwords) over the covert channel
Yxilon – a Modular Open-Source Statistical Programming Language
Statistical research has always been at the edge of available computing power. Huge datasets, e.g in DataMining or Quantitative Finance, and computationally intensive techniques, e.g. bootstrap methods, always require a little bit more computing power than is currently available. But the most popular statistical programming language R, as well as statistical programming languages like S or XploRe, are interpreted which makes them slow in computing intensive areas. The common solution is to implement these routines in low-level programming languages like C/C++ or Fortran and subsequently integrate them as dynamic linked libraries (DLL) or shared object libraries (SO) in the statistical programming language.statistical programming language, XploRe, Yxilon, Java, dynamic linked libraries, shared object libraries
xLED: Covert Data Exfiltration from Air-Gapped Networks via Router LEDs
In this paper we show how attackers can covertly leak data (e.g., encryption
keys, passwords and files) from highly secure or air-gapped networks via the
row of status LEDs that exists in networking equipment such as LAN switches and
routers. Although it is known that some network equipment emanates optical
signals correlated with the information being processed by the device
('side-channel'), intentionally controlling the status LEDs to carry any type
of data ('covert-channel') has never studied before. A malicious code is
executed on the LAN switch or router, allowing full control of the status LEDs.
Sensitive data can be encoded and modulated over the blinking of the LEDs. The
generated signals can then be recorded by various types of remote cameras and
optical sensors. We provide the technical background on the internal
architecture of switches and routers (at both the hardware and software level)
which enables this type of attack. We also present amplitude and frequency
based modulation and encoding schemas, along with a simple transmission
protocol. We implement a prototype of an exfiltration malware and discuss its
design and implementation. We evaluate this method with a few routers and
different types of LEDs. In addition, we tested various receivers including
remote cameras, security cameras, smartphone cameras, and optical sensors, and
also discuss different detection and prevention countermeasures. Our experiment
shows that sensitive data can be covertly leaked via the status LEDs of
switches and routers at a bit rates of 10 bit/sec to more than 1Kbit/sec per
LED
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