Chapter 9

Security

9.1 The security environment

9.2 Basics of cryptography
9.3 User authentication
9.4 Attacks from inside the system
9.5 Attacks from outside the system
9.6 Protection mechanisms
9.7 Trusted systems

1
The Security Environment
Threats

Security goals and threats

2
 Intruders
Common Categories
2. Casual prying by nontechnical users
3. Snooping by insiders
4. Determined attempt to make money
5. Commercial or military espionage

3
 Accidental Data Loss
Common Causes
2. Acts of God
- fires, floods, wars
3. Hardware or software errors
- CPU malfunction, bad disk, program bugs
4. Human errors
- data entry, wrong tape mounted

4
 Basics of Cryptography

Relationship between the plaintext and the ciphertext

5
 Secret-Key Cryptography

• Monoalphabetic substitution
– each letter replaced by different letter

• Given the encryption key,

– easy to find decryption key

• Secret-key crypto called symmetric-key crypto

6
 Public-Key Cryptography

• All users pick a public key/private key pair

– publish the public key
– private key not published

• Public key is the encryption key

– private key is the decryption key

7
 One-Way Functions

• Function such that given formula for f(x)

– easy to evaluate y = f(x)
• But given y
– computationally infeasible to find x

8
 Digital Signatures

(b)

• Computing a signature block

• What the receiver gets
9
 User Authentication
Basic Principles. Authentication must identify:
2. Something the user knows
3. Something the user has
4. Something the user is

This is done before user can use the system

10
 Authentication Using Passwords

(a) A successful login

(b) Login rejected after name entered
(c) Login rejected after name and password typed 11
Authentication Using Passwords

• How a cracker broke into LBL

– a U.S. Dept. of Energy research lab
12
 Authentication Using Passwords

,
,
,
,

Salt Password

The use of salt to defeat precomputation of

encrypted passwords
13
Authentication Using a Physical Object

• Magnetic cards
– magnetic stripe cards
– chip cards: stored value cards, smart cards 14
Authentication Using Biometrics

A device for measuring finger length.

15
 Countermeasures
• Limiting times when someone can log in
• Automatic callback at number prespecified
• Limited number of login tries
• A database of all logins
• Simple login name/password as a trap
– security personnel notified when attacker bites

16
 Operating System Security
Trojan Horses

• Free program made available to unsuspecting user

– Actually contains code to do harm

• Place altered version of utility program on victim's

computer
– trick user into running that program

17
 Login Spoofing

(a) Correct login screen

(b) Phony login screen
18
 Logic Bombs

• Company programmer writes program

– potential to do harm
– OK as long as he/she enters password daily
– ff programmer fired, no password and bomb explodes

19
 Trap Doors

(a) Normal code.

(b) Code with a trapdoor inserted
20
 Buffer Overflow

• (a) Situation when main program is running

• (b) After program A called
• (c) Buffer overflow shown in gray 21
 Generic Security Attacks
Typical attacks
• Request memory, disk space, tapes and just read
• Try illegal system calls
• Start a login and hit DEL, RUBOUT, or BREAK
• Try modifying complex OS structures
• Try to do specified DO NOTs
• Convince a system programmer to add a trap door
• Beg admin's sec’y to help a poor user who forgot password

22
Famous Security Flaws

(a) (b) (c)

The TENEX – password problem

23
 Design Principles for Security
1. System design should be public
2. Default should be n access
3. Check for current authority
4. Give each process least privilege possible
5. Protection mechanism should be
- simple
- uniform
- in lowest layers of system
6. Scheme should be psychologically acceptable
And … keep it simple
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 Network Security
• External threat
– code transmitted to target machine
– code executed there, doing damage
• Goals of virus writer
– quickly spreading virus
– difficult to detect
– hard to get rid of
• Virus = program can reproduce itself
– attach its code to another program
– additionally, do harm
25
 Virus Damage Scenarios
• Blackmail
• Denial of service as long as virus runs
• Permanently damage hardware
• Target a competitor's computer
– do harm
– espionage
• Intra-corporate dirty tricks
– sabotage another corporate officer's files

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 How Viruses Work (1)

• Virus written in assembly language

• Inserted into another program
– use tool called a “dropper”
• Virus dormant until program executed
– then infects other programs
– eventually executes its “payload”

27
 How Viruses Work (2)

Recursive
procedure
that finds
executable
files on a
UNIX
system

Virus could
infect them all
28
 How Viruses Work (3)

• An executable program
• With a virus at the front
• With the virus at the end
• With a virus spread over free space within program
29
 How Viruses Work (4)

• After virus has captured interrupt, trap vectors

• After OS has retaken printer interrupt vector
• After virus has noticed loss of printer interrupt vector
and recaptured it 30
 How Viruses Spread

• Virus placed where likely to be copied

• When copied
– infects programs on hard drive, floppy
– may try to spread over LAN
• Attach to innocent looking email
– when it runs, use mailing list to replicate

31
Antivirus and Anti-Antivirus Techniques

(a) A program
(b) Infected program
(c) Compressed infected program
(d) Encrypted virus
(e) Compressed virus with encrypted compression code
32
Antivirus and Anti-Antivirus Techniques

Examples of a polymorphic virus

All of these examples do the same thing
33
Antivirus and Anti-Antivirus Techniques

• Integrity checkers
• Behavioral checkers
• Virus avoidance
– good OS
– install only shrink-wrapped software
– use antivirus software
– do not click on attachments to email
– frequent backups
• Recovery from virus attack
– halt computer, reboot from safe disk, run antivirus
34
 The Internet Worm

• Consisted of two programs

– bootstrap to upload worm
– the worm itself
• Worm first hid its existence
• Next replicated itself on new machines

35
 Mobile Code (1) Sandboxing

(a) Memory divided into 1-MB sandboxes

(b) One way of checking an instruction for validity
36
 Mobile Code (2)

Applets can be interpreted by a Web browser

37
 Mobile Code (3)

How code signing works

38
 Java Security (1)

• A type safe language

– compiler rejects attempts to misuse variable

• Checks include …
1. Attempts to forge pointers
2. Violation of access restrictions on private class
members
3. Misuse of variables by type
4. Generation of stack over/underflows
5. Illegal conversion of variables to another type
39
 Java Security (2)

Examples of specified protection with JDK 1.2

40
 Protection Mechanisms
Protection Domains (1)

Examples of three protection domains

41
Protection Domains (2)

A protection matrix
42
 Protection Domains (3)

A protection matrix with domains as objects

43
 Access Control Lists (1)

Use of access control lists of manage file access

44
Access Control Lists (2)

Two access control lists

45
 Capabilities (1)

Each process has a capability list

46
 Capabilities (2)
• Cryptographically-protected capability
Server Object Rights f(Objects, Rights, Check)

• Generic Rights
1. Copy capability
2. Copy object
3. Remove capability
4. Destroy object

47
 Trusted Systems
Trusted Computing Base

A reference monitor
48
Formal Models of Secure Systems

(a) An authorized state

(b) An unauthorized state
49
 Multilevel Security (1)

The Bell-La Padula multilevel security model

50
 Multilevel Security (2)
The Biba Model

3. Principles to guarantee integrity of data

5. Simple integrity principle

• process can write only objects at its security level or lower

6. The integrity * property

• process can read only objects at its security level or higher

51
 Orange Book Security (1)

• Symbol X means new requirements

• Symbol -> requirements from next lower category
apply here also 52
Orange Book Security (2)

53
 Covert Channels (1)

Client, server and Encapsulated server can

collaborator processes still leak to collaborator via
covert channels

54
 Covert Channels (2)

A covert channel using file locking

55
 Covert Channels (3)
• Pictures appear the same
• Picture on right has text of 5 Shakespeare plays
– encrypted, inserted into low order bits of color values

Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar

Zebras Merchant of Venice, King Lear
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