Computer Security Threats

Computer Security Threats

Based on the content of Chapter 14 Operating Systems:

Internals and Design Principles, 6/E

William Stallings

Sistemi di Calcolo (II semestre), Roberto Baldoni

Sensitive economic sectors to cyber threats

in the close future the economic prosperity of a country will be measured according to the degree of security of its cyberspace

Cyber space

Efficiency Productivity

internet

internet internet

Cyber space and economic growth

Top economic driver for a nation

Digitalizing primary services

Weak Supply chain

1-2% GDP for each 10% of connected citizen (WEF) Cyber Crime Inherent fragility of complex systems Denial of service

internet internet internet Cyber Attacks Business continuity

In cyber space is always emergency!

Peaks of thousands attacks per hour Attacks on evenings and weekends Asymmetry increasingly powerful, simple and inexpensive tools difficulty to attribute

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts

• Threats, Attacks, and Assets • Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview • Viruses, Worms, and Bots

Security definition

• The NIST Computer Security Handbook defines computer security as:

– The protection afforded to an automated information system in order to attain the applicable objectives of preserving the integrity, availability and confidentiality of information system resources

Computer Security

Triad

• Three key objectives are at the heart of computer security

• Confidentiality: Covering two related concepts:

• Data confidentiality: Assures that private or

confidential information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized individuals

• Privacy: Assures that individuals control or influence what information related to them may be collected and stored and by whom and to whom that

Computer Security

Triad

• Three key objectives are at the heart of computer security

• Integrity: Also covers two related concepts:

• Data integrity: Assures that information and programs are changed only in a specified and authorized manner

• System integrity: Assures that a system performs its intended function in an unimpaired manner, free from deliberate or inadvertent unauthorized

Computer Security

Triad

• Three key objectives are at the heart of computer security

• Availability: Assures that systems work promptly and service is not denied to

Additional Concepts

• Two further concepts are often added to the core of computer security

• Authenticity:

The property of being genuine and being able to be

verified and trusted; confidence in the validity of a transmission, a message, or message originator. This means verifying that users are who they say they are and that each input arriving at the system came from a trusted source.

Additional Concepts

• Two further concepts are often added to the core of computer security

• Accountability:

• The security goal that generates the

requirement for actions of an entity to be traced uniquely to that entity.

• This supports nonrepudiation, deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and

prevention, and after-action recovery and legal action.

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts

• Threats, Attacks, and Assets

• Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview • Viruses, Worms, and Bots

Threats

RFC 2828, describes four kinds of threat consequences • Unauthorized Disclosure

• A circumstance or event whereby an entity gains access to data for which the entity is not authorized.

Deception

• A circumstance or event that may result in an authorized entity receiving false data and believing it to be true.

Disruption

• A circumstance or event that interrupts or prevents the correct operation of system services and functions.

Usurpation

• A circumstance or event that results in control of system services or functions by an unauthorized entity

Attacks resulting in

Unauthorised Disclosure

• Unauthorised Disclosure is a threat to confidentiality. Attacks include:

• Exposure

• This can be deliberate, as when an insider intentionally releases sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to an outsider. • Can also be the result of a human, hardware, or software error,which

results in an entity gaining unauthorized knowledge of sensitive data.

• Interception:

• On a shared local area network (LAN), such as a wireless LAN or a broadcast Ethernet, any device attached to the LAN can receive a copy of packets intended for another device.

• On the Internet, a determined hacker can gain access to e-mail traffic and other data transfers.

Attacks resulting in

Unauthorised Disclosure

• Unauthorised Disclosure is a threat to confidentiality. Attacks include:

• Inference:

• An adversary is able to gain information from observing the pattern of traffic on a network, such as the amount of traffic between particular pairs of hosts on the network.

• Another example is the inference of detailed information from a database by a user who has only limited access

• Intrusion:

• An adversary gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data by overcoming the system’s access control protections.

Attacks resulting in

Deception

• Deception is a threat to either system

integrity or data integrity. Attacks include: • Masquerade:

• An attempt by an unauthorized user to gain access to a system by

posing as an authorized user (e,g. using user’s logon ID and password) • malicious logic, such as a Trojan horse, that appears to perform a useful

or desirable function but actually gains unauthorized access to system resources or tricks a user into executing other malicious logic.

Falsification: altering or replacing of valid data or the introduction of false data into a file or database..

Attacks resulting in

Disruption

• Disruption is a threat to availability or system integrity. Attacks include:

Incapacitation (attack on system availability): – physical destruction of or damage to system

hardware.

– malicious software could operate in such a way as to disable a system or some of its services.

Attacks resulting in

Disruption

• Disruption is a threat to availability or system integrity. Attacks include:

Corruption (attack on system integrity) – Malicious software in this context could

operate in such a way that system resources or services function in an unintended manner.

– Or a user could gain unauthorized access to asystem and modify some of its functions. An example of the latter is a user

Attacks resulting in

usurpation

• Usurpation is a threat to system integrity. • Attacks include:

– Misappropriation – Misuse

Assets

• The assets of a computer system can be categorized as

– hardware, – software, – data,

Assets in Relation to the

CIA Triad

Attacks in cyber space

• «upstream monitoring» (agreement with Telco providers)

• «downstream monitoring» (agreement with ISP providers)

• Malware campaign and Advanced Persistent threats

internet

internet

malware

vulnerability

Cyber Espionage - Cyber Weapons

internet internet vulnerabilità internet Vulnerabilities patents sensitive government information sensitive industrial information etc.

Gauss Geography

Target: Lebanon Banks

surveillance tool used to monitor accounts and money flow.

Stuxnet Geography

Target: SIEMENS Scada Systems slowing the infected centrifuges down to a few hundred hertz for a full 50 minutes to destroy the machine

Vocaboulary

• Vulnerability • Software Bug

• Software bug vs vulnerability • Exploit

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Ramsonware

Denial of service

Cyber espionage

Wiping

Cyber2Physical

Dox(x)ing

Hacker

stanno

sviluppando una

“big-data mentality”

Dal dox(x)ing al

US Agencies data

breach passati da

27.000 nel 2009 a

46.000 nel 2013 con

boom di attacchi a

strutture ospedaliere

US Agencies data

breach passati da

27.000 nel 2009 a

46.000 nel 2013 con

boom di attacchi a

strutture ospedaliere

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts • Threats, Attacks, and Assets

• Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview • Viruses, Worms, and Bots

Who is behind the cyber threat

Virus _{APT, Malware}

Till 2004

today

Adversary

Advanced Persistent Threats

• sophisticated levels of expertise • significant resources

• Objectives (footholds within the information technology infrastructure of the targeted organizations)

– exfiltrating information

– undermining or impeding critical aspects of a mission, program, or organization – positioning itself to carry out these objectives in the future

• multiple attack vectors • behavior

1. pursue its objectives repeatedly over an extended period of time;

2. adapt to defenders’ efforts to resist it

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts • Threats, Attacks, and Assets • Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview

• Viruses, Worms, and Bots • Rootkits

Malware

• General term for any Malicious softWare

– Software designed to cause damage

– Or use up the resources of a target computer.

• Some malware is parasitic

– Contained within other software

• Some malware is self-replicating, others require some other means to propogate.

Backdoor

• Trapdoor

• Secret entry point

• Useful for programmers debugging

– But allows unscrupulous programmers to gain unauthorized access.

Logic Bomb

• Explodes when certain conditions are met

– Presence or absence of certain files – Particular day of the week

Trojan Horse

• Useful program that contains hidden code that when invoked performs some

unwanted or harmful function

• Can be used to accomplish functions

indirectly that an unauthorized user could not accomplish directly

– User may set file permission so everyone has access

Mobile Code

• Transmitted from remote system to local system

• Executed on local system without the user’s explicit instruction

• Common example is cross-site scripting attacks

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts • Threats, Attacks, and Assets • Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview

• Viruses, Worms, and Bots

Parts of Virus

• Software that “infects” other software by modifying them

• Modification includes

– An infection mechanism – Trigger

Virus Stages

• During its lifetime, a typical virus goes through the following four phases:

– Dormant phase

– Propagation phase – Triggering phase – Execution phase

Virus Structure

• May be prepended, postpended, or embedded in an executable

• When the executable runs, it first executes the virus, then calls the original code of the program

Virus Classification

• There is no simple or universally agreed upon classification scheme for viruses, • It is possible to classify a virus by a

number of means including

– By target

by Target

• Boot sector infector • File infector

by Concealment

Strategy

• Encrypted virus

– Random encryption key encrypts remainder of virus

• Stealth virus

– Hides itself from detection of antivirus software

• Polymorphic virus

– Mutates with every infection

• Metamorphic virus

– Mutates with every infection

Macro Viruses

• Platform independent

– Most infect Microsoft Word documents

• Infect documents, not executable portions of code

• Easily spread

• File system access controls are of limited use in preventing spread

E-Mail Viruses

• May make use of MS Word macro’s • If someone opens the attachment it

– Accesses the local address book and sends copies of itself to contacts

Worms

• Replicates itself

• Use network connections to spread form system to system

• Email virus has elements of being a worm (self replicating)

– But normally requires some intervention to run, so classed as a virus rather than worm

Worm Propogation

• Electronic mail facility

– A worm mails a copy of itself to other systems

• Remote execution capability

– A worm executes a copy of itself on another system

• Remote log-in capability

– A worm logs on to a remote system as a user and then uses commands to copy itself from one system to the other

Bots

• From Robot

– Also called Zombie or drone

• Program secretly takes of another Internet-attached computer

• Launch attacks that are difficult to trace to bot’s creator

Roadmap

• Computer Security Concepts • Threats, Attacks, and Assets • Intruders

• Malicious Software Overview • Viruses, Worms, and Bots

Rootkit

• Set of programs installed on a system to maintain administrator (or root) access to that system

• Hides its existence

• Attacker has complete control of the system.

Rootkit classification

• Rootkits can be classified based on

whether they can survive a reboot and execution mode.

– Persistent

– Memory based – User mode

Rootkit installation

• Often as a trojan

– Commonly attached to pirated software

• Installed manually after a hacker has gained root access

System Call Table

Modification by Rootkit

• Programs operating at the user level interact with the kernel through system calls.

– Thus, system calls are a primary target of

Changing Syscalls

• Three techniques that can be used to change system calls:

– Modify the system call table

– Modify system call table targets – Redirect the system call table