SSCP / Cissp Notes I Used To Pass
SSCP / Cissp Notes I Used To Pass
I Used To Pass
I passed CISSP at 100 questions in 60 minutes in 06/2020.
These notes were compiled for myself and tailored to my knowledge. It does not contain all content.
It will likely help you after you’ve completed the initial round of studying of all domains.
These notes are a consolidation of knowledge gathered from Adam Gordon’s notes and questions, ITProTV’s test answers, Boson’s
explanations from his tests, the Sunflower notes, Wentz Wu’s questions and many other sources.
Feel free to share the link to these notes if you find them useful.
Tell me about mistakes in or improvements to my notes!
Say hello to me (@Lance) at https://discord.gg/certstation
Lance’s How To: Tackle CISSP
1. As everyone has said, your role is a risk management advisor, NOT a technician.
2. We often hear “Mile Wide, Inch Deep” for CISSP, but I would like to add - FOR BASIC TOPICS, DIG DEEP, BUT NOT TOO DEEP.
It’s important to understand the "process" for basic topics - the "why" and "how". Apply the style of questioning below and you will be prepared.
Using the example of a SIEM (which is NOT a basic topic in CISSP), you know what it is, but have you asked…
6. IMPORTANT: Don’t struggle with too many practice questions. FOCUS on the understanding of the topics and analysis process of the options.
Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/certstation
Key Regulations
Patriot Act Provide appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism
E2EE: Encrypts at point of swiping, may get decrypted on merchant device or at payment gateway because key
is negotiated between merchant and gateway, not processor.
P2PE: Uses verified hardware, software and processor. Does not allow key management by merchant.
Sarbanes-Oxley aka SOX. Publicly-traded companies must report their financial status
GLBA of 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Financial institutions only. Provide customers with privacy notice annually.
FISMA of 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act. All federal agencies
OMB Circular A-130 Managing information as a strategic resource. Help reduce paperwork.
NIST SP 800-14 Generally Accepted Principles and Practices for Securing IT Systems
NIST SP 800-30 Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems OCTAVE, PUSH
NIST SP 800-53 Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and
Organizations
4 domains:
3 Control Activities
Business, Application, Data, Tech
ITIL - Controls for IT service management
4 Information and Communication
1 Service Strategy
5 Monitoring
2 Service Design
Awareness of Staff
https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/issues/2017/volume-4/enterprise-security-architecturea-top-down-approach
CPTED - Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
Territorial Reinforcement Premise: Boundaries define users’ familiarity with the surroundings. Easy to identify intruders.
- Natural to protect a territory that they feel is their own
- Fences, pavement treatment, art, signs, good maintenance and landscaping
Maintenance & Management Premise: The more run-down an area is, the more likely there’ll be crime, i.e. Broken Window Theory
- Clear sub-division of space into degrees of public / semi-public / private areas
PHYSICAL protection systems (e.g. gate / doors) focus on: PEOPLE, PROCEDURES & EQUIPMENT
Smart Cards
Certificate (containing public key) is accessible at any time. PIN unlocks the private key. Challenge is issued from
authenticator, encrypted with private key and sent back. Authenticator uses public key from certificate to decrypt.
Contact Electrical “fingers” wipe against exact point of chip contacts, providing it power and data I/O
Contactless Has antenna surrounding perimeter of card that gets activated in electromagnetic field, generating power
Mandatory Uniform implementation. All subjects cannot change constraints (passing info, granting access)
Clearances and data classifications are used as labels. [Hierarchical, Compartmentalized, Hybrid]
Role-based Permissions based on job title. Can be used to implement MAC or DAC.
Attribute(s)-based Combine multiple attributes about subject, object and environment. AKA policy-based
Context-based Usually for firewalls. Can detect and prevent DoS and provide real-time alerts and audit trails.
Access Controls
Deterrent Barriers, fences, lighting, guard dogs, alarms
Multi-level SOME SOME SOME Revocation Different from deletion (implies loss of information)
Access Control Roles
Data Owner Responsible for classification of data. Holds legal rights and complete control over data they create
Data Controller Determines purpose(s) for which and the manner in which data is to be processed. Due Diligence.
Data Steward Responsible for data content (i.e. what’s in the data field) via policies, guidelines, etc.
Data Custodian Responsible for technical environment, data storage and maintenance (e.g. DB Admin)
Data Processor Process data on behalf of Data Controller, ensures adherence, accessibility & maintenance. Due Care.
OAuth [Resource Server, Resource Owner, User] Authorization framework. Can be used with XACML.
Allows access tokens to be issued to third-party clients by authorization server, with approval of resource owner. The
third party then uses the access token to access protected resources hosted by the resource server.
OAuth 2.0 Provides specific authorization flows for web applications, desktop applications, mobile phones, and smart devices.
Not backward-compatible with OAuth.
OpenID [Application, Relying Party, User] Decentralized Authentication. Register/login with account on another service.
OpenID Connect [RESTFUL HTTP JSON API, Authorization Server, User] Authentication layer on top of OAuth 2.
EAP - Authentication framework provides some common functions and negotiation of authentication methods called EAP methods
Method Description
LEAP Developed prior to 802.11i, used in WEP. Considered insecure. Replaced with PEAP or EAP-TLS.
802.1x - Encapsulates EAP over IEEE 802, i.e. EAPOL 802.11i - Authentication protocol implemented as WPA2
Supplicant: Client 4-way handshake for mutual authentication
Authenticator: Access Point / Switch
Initial authentication process uses either PSK or EAPOL
Authenticator uses RADIUS
to check for authentication Uses CCMP, i.e. AES CCM + AES CTR
before controlling access of Potentially vulnerable to KRACK (Key-Reinstallation)
supplicant to network.
RADIUS, TACACS, XTACACS, TACACS+ & Diameter
RADIUS Client/Server - Server cannot initiate communication.
Only provides Reject / Challenge / Accept response to user/pass authentication.
Uses shared secret key and MD5 when transmitting passwords. Username in plaintext.
TACACS+ Client/Server. Extends XTACACS with 2FA and dynamic passwords. NEW PROTOCOL. NOT BACKWARD COMPATIBLE.
Diameter Peer-to-Peer model - allows server to request for credentials for access attempts or to proactively disconnect users.
Has more AVPs than RADIUS. Allows different services (VoIP, MoIP, FoIP) to be authenticated in one architecture instead
of individual architectures or over PPP and SLIP connections only.
Can work with TLS and IPSec.
RC4 Stream / Insecure implementation in TLS and WEP 1 40 - 2048 bits N/A
DES Block. ECB < CBC < CFB < OFB < CTR 16 56 + 8 bits parity 64 bits
2DES Block. Key attack methodology: Meet-in-the-Middle 32 112 + 16 bits parity 64 bits
AES / Rijndael Block (Original Rijndael: any key length in multiples of 32 bits 10 128 bits 128 bits
between 128 and 256 bits) 12 192 bits
Key attack methodology: Side channel 14 256 bits
Twofish Block / One of the finalists for AES 16 128 / 192 / 256 bits 128 bits
Camellia Block / Standard cipher in IPSec, TLS, S/MIME, Kerberos, 128 / 192 bits / 256 bits 128 bits
18 / 24 / 24
OpenPGP
DES Modes
Mode Description Uses Propagates
IV Errors
ECB Vulnerable to known ciphertext attacks. Easiest and fastest. No Yes
Used for database encryption
Better Security
CBC Block mode chaining uses previous encrypted block to encrypt each subsequent block Yes Yes
Used for authentication.
CFB Stream mode chaining (feedback) uses previous encrypted bits to encrypt each subsequent Yes Yes
bit. Used for authentication.
OFB Stream. Uses encryption subkey before it is XORed with plaintext. Used for authentication Yes No
CTR Stream. Uses 64 bit counter for feedback. Counter does not depend on results of previous bits Yes No
or blocks of encryption. CTR can perform multiple encryptions in parallel, increasing speed
Concepts
Confusion & Diffusion Confusion: Substitution. Diffusion: Transposition. Both required for a strong cipher.
Link Encryption Encrypts all information including header, trailer and routing information.
Stream vs Block Stream ciphers are often used when the data has no fixed size (e.g. call, continuous data transfer).
Stream ciphers are better used in hardware because of the bit-level XORing functions.
Main problem with stream ciphers is proper implementation.
Perfect Forward Secrecy Key is frequently changed so that if the latest key is compromised, only a small (latest) portion of data is.
Crypto Lifecycle Key Management
Pre-operational Create cryptographic key, initialize by setting core attributes. Recovery Given access to the key /
Agency cryptosystem. Provides the
Operational Normal usage key / recovery process in the
event it is lost.
Revocation / Expiry Stronger cryptosystem = shorter time to expiry
Post-operational Keys are backed up for data reconstruction Key Escrow Given the key itself and is to
Destroy Only when compromised or fully retired access sensitive data under
specific circumstances
Key Attacks
FREAK Cipher / Man-in-the-Middle, forced usage of weak keys
BEAST Cipher / Violated same-origin constraints to exploit CBC weakness in TLS 1.0
CRIME & BREACH CRIME targeted compression over TLS, BREACH was an instance of CRIME on HTTP
POODLE Cipher / Affected all block ciphers in SSL 3.0. Variant also affected TLS 1.0 to 1.2. Caused SSL migration.
Meltdown Hardware / Intel x86 processors, race condition + side channel attack allowed rogue process to read of
all memory regardless of authorization
Spectre Hardware / Microprocessors with branch prediction. Side channel + timing attack
Wannacry Ransomware / Old versions of Windows (SMB protocol), affected healthcare services
Private
Public
Certificates - X.509. Provide authentication before securely sending information to a server
Level 1 Assurance Only requires email address
Level 2 Assurance Verifies a user’s name, address, social security number and other information against a credit bureau database
Bob Verifies Alice’s certificate verify(AliceCert, CAPublic) OCSP with Contains less data than CRL. Less network bandwidth.
stapling Real-time status checks for high volume operations.
Template
Root CA 1 Root CA 2
Certification Path Validation:
- Checks authenticity of certificates Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate
- Checks CRL / OCSP CA 1 CA 2 CA 3 CA 4
- Mitigates MITM
Cross Certification: Issuing Issuing Issuing Issuing Issuing Issuing Issuing Issuing
- Establish trust between different PKI CA 1 CA 2 CA 3 CA 4 CA 5 CA 6 CA 7 CA 8
- Build overall PKI hierarchy
- Allow users to validate each other’s
certificate under different hierarchies
- Trust relationship, e.g. Root CA 1
signing for Intermediate CA 3 Registration Domain
Authority (RA) Controller
Verifies user identity on behalf
User of CA 6, BEFORE issuance
Kerberos
Requires time synchronization (over NTP) to prevent relay attacks.
2 Conduct BIA Conduct BIA to identify time-sensitive critical business Frame Prepare
(aka functional analysis) functions and processes and the resources that support them
Assess Categorize
3 Identify preventive controls Identify, document and implement to recover critical business Respond Select Controls
functions and processes. Data loss causes most devastation.
4 Develop recovery strategies Monitor Implement Controls
5 Develop IT contingency plans Organize a team and compile a BCP to manage a business Assess Controls
disruption. May include multiple contingency plans.
Scope > Key Business Areas > Critical Functions > Depencies > MTD Authorize Controls
6 Perform DRP training & testing Approval & Implementation Monitor Controls
Conduct training for business continuity team and testing and
exercises to evaluate recovery strategies and the plan
Quantitative assessments are
7 Perform BCP/DRP maintenance Tested at least annually harder and for assessors with
experience.
Qualitative assessments are
BC/DR Teams solely done when there is
insufficient time.
Business Continuity IT, legal, media relations, network recovery, relocation, security,
Planning telecommunications. Has senior management. Usually doesn’t include CEO.
Incident Response Responds to security incidents, not part of execution of contingency plan
Damage Assessment
Salvage / Restoration Restore to primary site. Can declare when primary site is available again.
LEAST critical functions get restored first at primary site.
BC/DR Plans RAID
Continuity of Restoring mission-essential functions 0 Striping (for high speed). No fault tolerance (no mirror, no parity)
Operations (MEF) to alternate site, including
1 Mirror 1-to-1. No striping. Very costly.
management succession and HQ
re-establishment 3 Striped mirror with parity in dedicated (bottleneck) drive. Minimum of 3 drives.
Business Long term, strategic. e.g. backups 5 Mirror with parity striped together across all drives. Minimum of 3 drives.
Continuity
1+0 2 or more mirrors in a stripe. No parity. Minimum of 4 drives.
Disaster Tactical. Primarily a site-specific plan
Recovery developed with procedures to System Crash Procedure
Data Remanence
temporarily move operations. 1 Enter Single-User Mode
Clearing / Erasing
Information Covers recovery of systems regardless 2 Recover damaged file system files
Systems of site or location. Purging / Sanitizing
Contingency 3 Identify cause of reboot and repair Destroying
Plan
4 Validate critical config and system files
Occupant First-response procedures for Transportation of backup tapes
Emergency occupants of a facility, including 5 Reboot system as normal must be included in the RTO!!
Plan health and safety of personnel
Deploy 4 Approval
6 Test
7 Implement
Incident Response Steps
8 (Rollback)
1 Prepare Pre-incident. Includes training, policies definition, etc.
9 Document
2 Detect SIEM. IDPS. A/V software. Continuous Monitoring. End-user Awareness.
10 Notify
3 Respond / Contain CSIRT / CIRT. Forensic backup. Isolate. Volatile memory dump. Power off as last ditch.
4 Mitigate / Eradicate Analyze helps proper clean-up. May include root cause analysis.
Restore to functioning state. Patch.
5 Report
8 Lessons Learned
A Common Combustibles Water, Soda Acid Dry Pipe Compressed air. Discharge after all air escaped.
Prevents water freezing in pipes.
B Liquids & Gas (UK: C) CO2, Halon Equivalent, Soda Acid
Pre-action Detection system. No false activations.
C Electrical (UK: E) CO2, Halon Equivalent Water held back until detectors activated.
D Metal Dry Powder Deluge Dry-pipe. All heads open at once to cover area.
Large volume. No heat sensing elements.
Good Temperature & Humidity
Gas Systems (x Halon)
60 - 75 Fahrenheit Pressurized Rooms
FM-200 CEA-410 or 308
15 - 23 Celcius Positive Air can flow out of room
Argon Argon-K
Humidity: 40% - 60% Negative Air can flow into room
Corrosion (high) / Static (low)
Areas around building 1 Common Noise Hot & Ground Wires EMI
Relocks
Thermal Engage extra lock when temperature is met, e.g. due to drilling of a safe
Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Signed: Integrity, Authentication, Non-repudiation X.509, SHA-1
Extension (S/MIME) Enveloped: Integrity, Authentication, Confidentiality
MIME Object Security Services (MOSS) Authentication, Confidentiality, Integrity and Non-repudiation MD2 & MD5
RSA, DES
Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) Authentication, Confidentiality, Integrity, Non-repudiation RSA, DES, X.509
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Assertion that an email was sent by an organization -
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Phil Zimmerman, Asymmetric. Can also encrypt disk drives. RSA, IDEA, SHA-1
Opportunistic TLS for SMTP Gateways Attempts to setup encrypted connection with mail servers [TLS]
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Spam Protection. Verifies with DNS for SPF record. -
Viruses SCAP - Security Content Automation Protocol
Resident Waits for programs to be executed then infects them. CVE Naming system for vulnerabilities
Non-resident Actively infects selected files without waiting for execution CVSS Scoring system for severity of
vulnerabilities
Companion Virus abuses “extension search order” (execution order) - .com, .exe
then .bat - by naming itself the same as legitimate .exe but as .com Base score affects Temporal Score
Boot-sector Boots with virus in memory. Requires both disks to be connected
Temporal Score affects
to the same system for replication.
Environmental Score (Final)
Tunneling Installs itself under the A/V system and intercepts calls A/V system
CCE Naming system for system config
makes to the OS
problems
Stealth Hides the changes it makes as it replicates. Can intercept OS calls.
CPE Naming system for OS, applications
Self-garbling Formats its own code to prevent A/V from detecting it and devices
Polymorphic Can produce multiple operational copies of itself. Mutates while XCCDF Language format for security
retaining original functionality checklists
Multipart Can infect system files and boot sectors and restore itself upon OVAL Language format for security testing
deletion of a part procedures
Shellcode Wraps around an application so it is executed before the Side Channel Attacks
application
Covert High-level process writes, low-level
Retrovirus Attacks / bypasses A/V system by destroying virus definitions or Storage process reads
creating bypasses for itself
Covert High-level process transmits, low-level
Phage Virus Modifies other programs and databases. Only way to remove is to Timing process reads.
reinstall infected applications
Material
Competent
Computer Crime
Computer-Assisted
Computer used as tool. Attack servers to obtain confidential
5 Be’s of Evidence
data, attack financial systems to steal money
Authentic
Computer-Targeted
Computer is victim. B/O, DDoS, Virus destroy data Accurate
Computer-Incidental Complete
Involved incidentally, not victim nor tool
Convincing
Computer-Prevalence
Violation of copyrights, software piracy Admissible
OSI Layers
Layer Description Unit Protocols
Physical Media, Signal and Binary Transmission Bits Coax, Fiber, Wireless, SONET, HSSI,
Hardware: Network Card (NIC), Hub, Repeater, Concentrator EIA/TIA
Data Link MAC (>> EUI-64) and LLC (Physical Addressing) Frames - Ethernet SLIP, PPP (pre-PPTP), ARP, ISDN,
Flow control, error notification (IEEE 802.3), Token L2F + PPTP = L2TP (+ IPSec = VPN)
Hardware: Switch, Bridge Ring, 802.11, FDDI
Encapsulation
Network Path Determination & IP (Logical Addressing) Packets IPv4, IPv6, IPSec, ICMP, RIP (DV),
Routing: Ensures packet can reach its destination BGP (DV), OSPF (LS) IGMP, NAT,
Hardware: Router / Bridge Router (Brouter - route first then SKIP, IPX
bridge if fail)
Transport End-to-End Connections and Reliability Sockets TCP, UDP, [SSL, TLS]
Segmentation: Divides data into transmittable packets Segments (TCP)
Datagram (UDP)
Presentation Data Representation and Encryption Data File formats e.g. JPG, MIDI
Application Network Process to Application Data HTTP, FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, DHCP
Distance Vector: Choose route with least number of hops based on distance. (RIP, BGP, IGRP)
Link State: Choose fastest path. Neighbour Table, Topology Table, Routing Table. Measures cost to each neighbour, construct shortest path. (OSPF)
Packets with internal source addresses should never originate from outside the network, so they should be blocked from entering the network.
Packets with external source addresses should never be found on the internal network, so they should be blocked from leaving the network.
Private IP addresses should never be used on the Internet, so packets containing private IP addresses should be blocked from leaving the network.
IGP & EGP
IGP Internal routing within an autonomous system (e.g. organization-controlled network)
IGRP [DV] Uses 5 criteria to make a “best route” decision. Network admin can set weightage. Cisco.
RIP [DV] Standard that outlines how routers exchange routing table data. Slow, legacy.
V1 has no authentication. V2 sends passwords in cleartext or MD5.
OSPF [LS] Sends out routing table information (smaller, more frequent updates). Replaced RIP. Optional authentication
BGP Enables routers on different AS to share routing information. Commonly used by ISPs to route data.
Common Ports Firewalls
0 - 1023 System / Well-known Stateful Dynamic Packet Filtering (Layers 3 & 4)
Can assemble IP packets to understand context and filter
1024 - 49151 Registered / User
Stateless Static Packet Filtering (Layer 3)
49152 - 65535 Dynamic Only looks at each individual packet to filter
AH Provides authentication and integrity check of the full traffic including headers, but not encryption of payload. Hates NAT.
Digitally signs a packet for authentication, providing non-repudiation.
ESP Provides authentication and encryption of payload, but outer IP header is not checked for integrity. Works with NAT.
IPSec Modes
AH ESP
Transport Encrypts IP packet data only, but not header
Transport Authenticated Packets Authenticated Packets
Tunnel Encrypts WHOLE IP packet, adds new header (Digitally signed)
Encapsulation Encrypted Payload
Use IDS (on promiscuous port mode) Use packet filtering firewall
DNS Poisoning - Spoofing of pointer (HOSTS file or Access Point) to alter DNS resolution
Mitigations Only allow authorized changes to DNS information Restrict zone transfers
DNS Hijacking - Spoofing of replies sent to a caching DNS for non-existent subdomains, allow attacker to take over entire DNS
Mitigations Use DNSSEC
CAT 5e 1 Gbps 350 Mhz 10Base5 Coaxial 10 Mbps 500m 802.11a 54 Mbps 5 GHz
Thicknet
CAT 6 1 Gbps 802.11b 11 Mbps 2.4 GHz
O/S vulnerabilities - unpatched call manager systems and VoIP endpoints (phones)
Eavesdropping can occur due to unencrypted traffic - mitigated by using Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP)
The current Internet architecture over which voice is transmitted is less secure than physical phone lines
Softphones (software phone, e.g. Skype) make an IP network more vulnerable than hardware-based IP phones
Phreaking Methods
Black Box Used to manipulate line voltage to steal long-distance service
Blue Box Used to simulate the 2600 Hz tones to interact directly with phone system backbone
White Box Used to control phone system using dual-tone multifrequency generator (keypad handset)
Callback Modes
User gets a dial-back on a pre-defined number that is associated with the user
Caller-ID mode requires user to dial in from the pre-defined number in order to get the call-back
Virtual Circuits - logical communication pathway created over a packet-switched network
Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVC) Dedicated circuit that always exists and is available to the customer
Switched Virtual Circuits (SVC) Like a dial-up connection, available on-demand, but must be setup for each use and is then torn
down immediately after use
WAN Technologies
Dedicated Lines / Always available and reserved for single customer. SDLC / HDLC used as L2 protocol.
Lease Lines
Each channel: 64 Kbps Technology Connection Type Speed
Uses all channels. 24 channels: 1.54 Mbps
DS-0 Partial T1 64 Kbps - 1.54 Mbps
European version has
32 B & 2 D channels. DS-1 T1 1.54Mbps
Non-Dedicated Lines Connection must be made before data transmission, e.g. modems, DSL, ISDN (digital voice + data)
ISDN BRI: Two B channels for data, one D channel for management
PVC. Tx / Ex line.
SDLC / HDLC
Branch Office
ATM over Tx / Ex line
DSL (PPPoA / PPPOE)
Local Telco
Internal mesh,
external star
Telco
WAN Connection Technologies
X.25 / Frame Relay Old. Packet switching. Used PVC.
Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) Connectionless packet switching. Forms Metropolitan Area Network.
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) Fibre from ITU. Uses Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing to high-speed duplex.
Mesh or Ring.
Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) Polling on permanent connections at Layer 2 to provide connectivity on mainframes.
High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) Refined SDLC. Full Duplex. Uses polling at Layer 2.
Software Acquisition OLE DB Method of linking data from different DBs together
Contracting
Follow On
Maturity Models
SSE-CMM: IDEAL
- Covers entire lifecycle Initiate, diagnose, establish, act, learn
- Whole organization
- Concurrent interaction with other disciplines
- Interactions with other orgs
Software CMM
Initial State of flux. Ad-hoc decisions.
Repeatable Can be repeated with some form of consistency. Not rigorous. Not documented.
Defined Documented SOPs, but may not be sufficiently implemented. Developmental stage.
Managed Processes tested, refined / optimized. Able to demonstrate competence across conditions. No measurable loss in quality.
Optimizing CONTINUOUS PROCESS. Addresses common causes of statistical variances in processes. Changes processes to improve performance.
Product Evaluation Models
TCSEC ITSEC CC Protection Usage
D F-D + E0 EAL 0/1 Minimal Protection / Functionally Tested
C1 F-C1 + E1 EAL 2 Discretionary Security / Structurally Tested Users process info at same
sensitivity level. Low security.
C2 F-C2 + E2 EAL 3 Controlled Access / Methodically Tested & Checked Authentication and auditing
enabled. Granular access control,
no object re-use.
B1 F-B1 + E3 EAL 4 Labelled Access / Methodically Designed, Tested & Reviewed OS & products. Governments.
B2 F-B2 + E4 EAL 5 Structured Security / Semi-formally Designed & Tested Trusted path, no backdoors.
Lowest level for trusted facility
management.
B3 F-B3 + E5 EAL 6 Security Domains / Semi-formally Verified, Designed & Tested Trusted recovery
A1 F-B3 + E6 EAL 7 Verified Design & Protection / Formally Verified, Designed & Tested
TSEC comes from the Orange Book. Only addresses confidentiality. Common Criteria:
Based on functionality, effectiveness, assurance. - Mainly targets consumers, developers & evaluators
ITSEC is European version of TSEC. Addresses CIA.
- Security Target (ST): Security profile of TOE, compared both
before and after evaluation
TSEC C: DAC | TSEC B: MAC based on Bell-LaPadula, uses security labels.
- Protection Profile (PP): Standard/Baseline
ITSEC defines functionality (AAA) and assurance (performing
consistently, i.e. develop practices, documentation and configuration - Outcome of TOE: Objective, Repeatable, Defensible
Evidential results
management) separately because two distinct systems may have
the same functionality but different assurance levels.
Trusted Recovery Types
Manual If system fails, does not fail secure. Must have intervention.
Automated Can perform trusted recovery to restore itself against at least one type of failure
Automated w/o Undue Loss Automated + Mechanisms to ensure that specific objects are protected to prevent their loss
Execution Domain:
Isolated area used by trusted
processes when they run in
privileged state.
Protection Domain:
Memory space isolated from
other processes in the
multi-processing system.
Trusted Path:
Communication channel
between applications and
Reference Monitor: Abstract concept of ACL implementation, tamper-proof, small enough to test. kernel in TCB
Kernel: Made up of all components of TCB. Responsible for implementing security policy and reference Trusted Channel:
monitor. To be secure, kernel must be complete, isolated and verifiable. Communication channel
Execution Domain Switching: The TCB allows processes to switch between domains in a secure manner between EXTERNAL
applications and the TCB
Processor Privilege States
User / Process / Problem / Program Processor limits access to system data and hardware granted to the running process
Kernel / Supervisor Has access to all resources and can execute both priv & non-priv instructions
CPU Architectures
Von Neumann / Princeton Data and instructions are the same, use the same bus. Leads to injections.
Instruction fetch and data operations cannot occur at the same time. Bottlenecked system performance.
CPU Components
Control Unit (CU) Fetches and interprets code, oversees execution of instruction sets. Determines priority and time slice.
CPU General registers: hold variables and temporary results as ALU works through execution steps
Special / dedicated registers: Hold info e.g. program counter (holds next instruction to be fetched),
stack pointer, program status word (PSW)
Sharing Allow multiple users with different access levels to interact with application / process while running.
Enforce confidentiality & integrity controls between processes using shared memory segments
Logical Organization Segmentation of all memory types, provide addressing scheme at abstraction level and allow for sharing of
software modules e.g. DLL modules
Relative
Content-addressable aka associative memory. Memory used in complex searches for a specific data value
Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR): Virtual memory mapped to sporadic allocation of physical memory
Access control lists to protect shared memory objects. Forced security checks
Heap Metadata Protection: Microsoft protection that forces application to fail if pointer is freed incorrectly. Required in Microsoft SDL.
Pointer Encoding: XOR random values with pointers. Attack would need to guess the right XOR. Not required in Microsoft SDL.
Virtual Memory: Maps hardware memory address to applications. Enables multitasking by sharing libraries between applications,
enabling more than one application to access the same information from the same memory address. Allows swapping and paging.
Paging: Moves fixed-length block of memory to disk (secondary memory). When it is required by OS, info is retrieved and loaded back.
Process Isolation & Memory Protection Methods Interrupted processes can create
security breaches when the current
Encapsulation No process can interact with internal of another process
process is given a clearance level of the
Time Multiplexing Provide structured, controlled, managed access to resources previous process.
Naming Distinctions PID. Each process is assigned unique identity in OS Program counter register contains
memory address of next instruction to
Virtual Address Allows each process to have its own memory space, enforced be fetched.
Memory Mapping through Memory Manager, which provides -
1. Abstraction level for programmers
2. Maximize performance of RAM
3. Protection of OS and applications once loaded into memory
Adam 1. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z9TJ75G 21. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XPBJXGT 41. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GPZHYGX
Questions
4. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SVCS6DH 24. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GGZSH7Y