Publications

Refine Results

(Filters Applied) Clear All

By

Creating a cyber moving target for critical infrastructure applications using platform diversity

January 28, 2012
  |
Journal Article
Author:
Hamed Okhravi
…
Published in:
Int. J. of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2012, pp. 30-39.
Topic:
systems architecture
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Despite the significant effort that often goes into securing critical infrastructure assets, many systems remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Trusted Dynamic Logical Heterogeneity System (TALENT), a framework for live-migrating critical infrastructure applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT permits a running critical application to change its hardware platform and operating system, thus providing cyber survivability through platform diversity. TALENT uses containers (operating-system-level virtualization) and a portable checkpoint compiler to create a virtual execution environment and to migrate a running application across different platforms while preserving the state of the application (execution state, open files and network connections). TALENT is designed to support general applications written in the C programming language. By changing the platform on-the-fly, TALENT creates a cyber moving target and significantly raises the bar for a successful attack against a critical application. Experiments demonstrate that a complete migration can be completed within about one second.
READ LESS

Summary

Despite the significant effort that often goes into securing critical infrastructure assets, many systems remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Trusted Dynamic Logical Heterogeneity System (TALENT), a framework for live-migrating critical infrastructure applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT permits a running...

READ MORE
Creating a cyber moving target for critical infrastructure applications using platform diversity

Dedicated vs. distributed: a study of mission survivability metrics

November 7, 2011
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Hamed Okhravi
…
Published in:
MILCOM 2011, IEEE Military Communications Conf., 7-10 November 2011, pp. 1345-1350.
Topic:
systems analysis
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

A traditional trade-off when designing a mission critical network is whether to deploy a small, dedicated network of highly reliable links (e.g. dedicated fiber) or a largescale, distributed network of less reliable links (e.g. a leased line over the Internet). In making this decision, metrics are needed that can express the reliability and security of these networks. Previous work on this topic has widely focused on two approaches: probabilistic modeling of network reliabilities and graph theoretic properties (e.g. minimum cutset). Reliability metrics do not quantify the robustness, the ability to tolerate multiple link failures, in a distributed network. For example, a fully redundant network and a single link can have the same overall source-destination reliability (0.9999), but they have very different robustness. Many proposed graph theoretic metrics are also not sufficient to capture network robustness. Two networks with identical metric values (e.g. minimum cutset) can have different resilience to link failures. More importantly, previous efforts have mainly focused on the source-destination connectivity and in many cases it is difficult to extend them to a general set of requirements. In this work, we study network-wide metrics to quantitatively compare the mission survivability of different network architectures when facing malicious cyber attacks. We define a metric called relative importance (RI), a robustness metric for mission critical networks, and show how it can be used to both evaluate mission survivability and make recommendations for its improvement. Additionally, our metric can be evaluated for an arbitrarily general set of mission requirements. Finally, we study the probabilistic and deterministic algorithms to quantify the RI metric and empirically evaluate it for sample networks.
READ LESS

Summary

A traditional trade-off when designing a mission critical network is whether to deploy a small, dedicated network of highly reliable links (e.g. dedicated fiber) or a largescale, distributed network of less reliable links (e.g. a leased line over the Internet). In making this decision, metrics are needed that can express...

READ MORE
Dedicated vs. distributed: a study of mission survivability metrics

Achieving cyber survivability in a contested environment using a cyber moving target

May 1, 2011
  |
Journal Article
Author:
Hamed Okhravi
…
Published in:
High Frontier, Vol. 7, No. 3, May 2011, pp. 9-13.
Topic:
cyber security
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

We describe two components for achieving cyber survivability in a contested environment: an architectural component that provides heterogeneous computing platforms and an assessment technology that complements the architectural component by analyzing the threat space and triggering reorientation based on the evolving threat level. Together, these technologies provide a cyber moving target that dynamically changes the properties of the system to disadvantage the adversary and provide resiliency and survivability.
READ LESS

Summary

We describe two components for achieving cyber survivability in a contested environment: an architectural component that provides heterogeneous computing platforms and an assessment technology that complements the architectural component by analyzing the threat space and triggering reorientation based on the evolving threat level. Together, these technologies provide a cyber moving...

READ MORE
Achieving cyber survivability in a contested environment using a cyber moving target

Creating a cyber moving target for critical infrastructure applications

March 19, 2011
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Hamed Okhravi
…
Published in:
5th IFIP Int. Conf. on Critical Infrastructure Protection, ICCIP 2011, 19-21 March 2011.
Topic:
systems architecture
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Despite the significant amount of effort that often goes into securing critical infrastructure assets, many systems remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Trusted Dynamic Logical Heterogeneity System (TALENT), a framework for live-migrating critical infrastructure applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT permits a running critical application to change its hardware platform and operating system, thus providing cyber survivability through platform diversity. TALENT uses containers (operating-system-level virtualization) and a portable checkpoint compiler to create a virtual execution environment and to migrate a running application across different platforms while preserving the state of the application (execution state, open files and network connections). TALENT is designed to support general applications written in the C programming language. By changing the platform on-the-fly, TALENT creates a cyber moving target and significantly raises the bar for a successful attack against a critical application. Experiments demonstrate that a complete migration can be completed within about one second.
READ LESS

Summary

Despite the significant amount of effort that often goes into securing critical infrastructure assets, many systems remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Trusted Dynamic Logical Heterogeneity System (TALENT), a framework for live-migrating critical infrastructure applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT permits...

READ MORE
Creating a cyber moving target for critical infrastructure applications

Information security for situational awareness in computer network defense

January 1, 2011
  |
Book Chapter
Author:
Uri Blumenthal
…
Published in:
Chapter Six, Situational Awareness in Computer Network Defense: Principles, Methods, and Applications, 2011, pp. 86-103.
Topic:
cryptography
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Situational awareness - the perception of "what's going on" - is crucial in every field of human endeavor, especially so in the cyber world where most of the protections afforded by physical time and distance are taken away. Since ancient times, military science emphasized the importance of preserving your awareness of the battlefield and at the same time preventing your adversary from learning the true situation for as long as possible. Today cyber is officially recognized as a contested military domain like air, land, and sea. Therefore situational awareness in computer networks will be under attacks of military strength and will require military-grade protection. This chapter describes the emerging threats for computer SA, and the potential avenues of defense against them.
READ LESS

Summary

Situational awareness - the perception of "what's going on" - is crucial in every field of human endeavor, especially so in the cyber world where most of the protections afforded by physical time and distance are taken away. Since ancient times, military science emphasized the importance of preserving your awareness...

READ MORE
Information security for situational awareness in computer network defense

TALENT: dynamic platform heterogeneity for cyber survivability of mission critical applications

October 29, 2010
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Hamed Okhravi
…
Published in:
Proc. Secure and Resilient Cyber Architecture Conf., SRCA, 29 October 2010.
Topic:
systems architecture
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Despite the significant amount of effort that often goes into securing mission critical systems, many remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. In this work, we design and implement TALENT (Trusted dynAmic Logical hEterogeNeity sysTem), a framework to live-migrate mission critical applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT enables us to change the hardware and operating system on top of which a sensitive application is running, thus providing cyber survivability through platform diversity. Using containers (a.k.a. operating system-level virtualization) and a portable checkpoint compiler, TALENT creates a virtual execution environment and migrates a running application across different platforms while preserving the state of the application. The state, here, refers to the execution state of the process as well as its open files and sockets. TALENT is designed to support a general C application. By changing the platform on-the-fly, TALENT creates a moving target against cyber attacks and significantly raises the bar for a successful attack against a critical application. Our measurements show that a full migration can be completed in about one second.
READ LESS

Summary

Despite the significant amount of effort that often goes into securing mission critical systems, many remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. In this work, we design and implement TALENT (Trusted dynAmic Logical hEterogeNeity sysTem), a framework to live-migrate mission critical applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT enables us to change...

READ MORE
TALENT: dynamic platform heterogeneity for cyber survivability of mission critical applications

Automated generation and analysis of attack graphs

May 12, 2002
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
O. Sheyner
…
Published in:
Proc. of the 2002 IEEE Symp. on Security and Privacy, 12-15 May 2002, pp. 254-265.
Topic:
attack graphs
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

An integral part of modeling the global view of network security is constructing attack graphs. In practice, attack graphs are produced manually by Red Teams. Construction by hand, however, is tedious, error-prone, and impractical for attack graphs have larger than a hundred nodes. In this paper we present an automated technique for generating and analyzing attack graphs. We base our technique on symbolic model checking algorithms, letting us construct attack graphs automatically and efficiently. We also describe two analyses to help decide which attacks would be most cost-effective to guard against. We implemented our techniques in a tool suite and tested it on a small network example, which includes models of a firewall and an intrusion detection system.
READ LESS

Summary

An integral part of modeling the global view of network security is constructing attack graphs. In practice, attack graphs are produced manually by Red Teams. Construction by hand, however, is tedious, error-prone, and impractical for attack graphs have larger than a hundred nodes. In this paper we present an automated...

READ MORE
Automated generation and analysis of attack graphs

Extending the DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluations

June 12, 2001
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Joshua W. Haines
…
Published in:
DARPA Information Survivability Conf. and Exposition II, 12-14 June 2001, pp. 35-45.
Topic:
cyber security
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

The 1998 and 1999 DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluations assessed the performance of intrusion detection systems using realistic background traffic and many examples of realistic attacks. This paper discusses three extensions to these evaluations. First, the Lincoln Adaptable Real-time Information Assurance Testbed (LARIAT) has been developed to simplify intrusion detection development and evaluation. LARIAT allows researchers and operational users to rapidly configure and run real-time intrusion detection and correlation tests with robust background traffic and attacks in their laboratories. Second, "Scenario Datasets" have been crafted to provide examples of multiple component attack scenarios instead of the atomic , attacks as found in past evaluations. Third, extensive analysis of the 1999 evaluation data and results has provided understanding of many attacks, their manifestations, and the features used to detect them. This analysis will be used to develop models of attacks, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion detection system alerts. Successful models could reduce the need for expensive experimentation, allow proof-of-concept analysis and simulations, and form the foundation of a theory of intrusion detection.
READ LESS

Summary

The 1998 and 1999 DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluations assessed the performance of intrusion detection systems using realistic background traffic and many examples of realistic attacks. This paper discusses three extensions to these evaluations. First, the Lincoln Adaptable Real-time Information Assurance Testbed (LARIAT) has been developed to simplify intrusion detection...

READ MORE
Extending the DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluations

SARA: Survivable Autonomic Response Architecture

June 12, 2001
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Scott M. Lewandowski
…
Published in:
DARPA Information Survivability Conf. and Exposition II, 12-14 June 2001, pp. 77-88.
Topic:
cyber security
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

This paper describes the architecture of a system being developed to defend information systems using coordinated autonomic responses. The system will also be used to test the hypothesis that an effective defense against fast, distributed information attacks requires rapid, coordinated, network-wide responses. The core components of the architecture are a run-time infrastructure (RTI), a communication language, a system model, and defensive components. The RTI incorporates a number of innovative design concepts and provides fast, reliable, exploitation-resistant communication and coordination services to the components defending the network, even when challenged by a distributed attack. The architecture can be tailored to provide scalable information assurance defenses for large, geographically distributed, heterogeneous networks with multiple domains, each of which uses different technologies and requires different policies. The architecture can form the basis of a field-deployable system. An initial version is being developed for evaluation in a testbed that will be used to test the autonomic coordination and response hypothesis.
READ LESS

Summary

This paper describes the architecture of a system being developed to defend information systems using coordinated autonomic responses. The system will also be used to test the hypothesis that an effective defense against fast, distributed information attacks requires rapid, coordinated, network-wide responses. The core components of the architecture are a...

READ MORE
SARA: Survivable Autonomic Response Architecture

Analysis and results of the 1999 DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluation

October 2, 2000
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Richard P. Lippmann
…
Published in:
Proc. Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection, RAID, 2-4 October 2000, pp. 162-182.
Topic:
intrusion detection & monitoring
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Eight sites participated in the second DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluation in 1999. Three weeks of training and two weeks of test data were generated on a test bed that emulates a small government site. More than 200 instances of 58 attack types were launched against victim UNIX and Windows NT hosts. False alarm rates were low (less than 10 per day). Best detection was provided by network-based systems for old probe and old denial-of-service (DOS) attacks and by host-based systems for Solaris user-to-root (U2R) attacks. Best over-all performance would have been provided by a combined system that used both host- and network-based intrusion detection. Detection accuracy was poor for previously unseen new, stealthy, and Windows NT attacks. Ten of the 58 attack types were completely missed by all systems. Systems missed attacks because protocols and TCP services were not analyzed at all or to the depth required, because signatures for old attacks did not generalize to new attacks, and because auditing was not available on all hosts.
READ LESS

Summary

Eight sites participated in the second DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluation in 1999. Three weeks of training and two weeks of test data were generated on a test bed that emulates a small government site. More than 200 instances of 58 attack types were launched against victim UNIX and Windows...

READ MORE
Analysis and results of the 1999 DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluation
1-10 of 11