Instructor: Dr. Sviatoslav Braynov

Catalog Description: The course introduces the fundamentals of Computer security. It covers various attack techniques and how to defend against them. Topics include: security policies and mechanisms, cryptographic techniques, formal methods of computer security, steganography, security of electronic payment systems, operating systems security, program security, Java security, database security, computer viruses and worms, intrusion detection, honeypots and honeytokens, physical temper resistance, electronic and information warfare, telecom security, smart cards security, privacy protecting techniques, spam, risk assessment, administering security, and legal and social issues. Students are expected to have good background in programming, operating systems, and networking.

Purpose of and Rationale for the Course: The intensive growth of the Internet has spawned an increased awareness in security issues. This course provides students with a background, foundation, and insight into the subject of Computer Security at a graduate level.

Course Objectives: This course calls on students to demonstrate:

• Knowledge of security technologies, applications, and concepts,
• The ability to reason through analysis, evaluation and design of secure systems,
• The ability to effectively apply this knowledge to the construction of secure software systems.

Student outcomes: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand a variety of generic security threats and vulnerabilities, the basic components of computer security and the risks faced by computer systems.
• Identify and analyze security problems in computer systems.
• Understand the design of security protocols and mechanisms.
• Use cryptography algorithms and protocols to achieve computer system security.
• Design and implement security mechanisms to protect computer systems.
• Apply appropriate security techniques to solve security problems.
• Understand selected legal, copyright, and privacy issues.

Textbooks:

1. C. Pfleeger and S. Pfleeger. Security in Computing. Prentice Hall, 2003. ISBN 0-13--035548-8
2. M. Bishop. Computer Security: Art and Science. Addison Wesley, 2003, ISBN 0-201-44099-7

Outline of Topics to be Covered:

• An overview of computer security
  • Basic Security Components: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability; Threats; Vulnerabilities; Assurance; Operational issues; Human and social issues; Policy and mechanism.
• Access control
  • Protection state; Access control matrix model; Access control by history; Protection state transitions; Primitive operations; Mono-operational commands; Conditional commands; Multiple conditions; Copy right; Own right; Attenuation of privilege; Foundational results: Harrison-Ruzzo-Ullman.
• Take-grant protection model
  • Links and filters; Multiparent create; Safety result; Theft and conspiracy in Take-Grant model.
• Schematic protection model
  • Links and filters; Safety result; Harrison-Ruzzo-Ullman vs Schematic Protection Model.
  Security policies
  • Types of security policies; The role of trust; Policy languages;
• Confidentiality policy
  • Goals of confidentiality policies; Security clearance, classification level, and security level; The Bell-LaPadula model; Formal model; The basic security theorem; Tranquility.
• Integrity policies
  • Biba's integrity model; Low-Water-Mark policy; Ring policy; Lipner's model; Bell-LaPadula Categories; Clark-Wilson Integrity Mode; Chinese Wall Model.
• Attack languages
  • Event languages; Response languages; Reporting languages; Correlation languages; Exploit languages.
• Introduction to cryptography
  • Classical Cipher Systems; Transposition, substitution and product ciphers; Monoalphabetic and polyalphabetical ciphers; Symmetric and asymmetric encryption systems; Stream and block ciphers; Cryptanalysis; Vigenere table; One-time pad; Vernam cipher; Random number generation; Possible attacks.
• Symmetric key algorithms
  • Diffusion and confusion; Playfair; DES; Triple DES; DES modes.
• Advanced Encription standard
  • Data input; Shift Row; MixColumn; RoundKeyAddition; The key schedule.
• Public key algorithms: RSA, Diffie-Hellman agreement
  • Problems with symmetric cryptosystems; Authentication mode; Secure Authenticated Messages; The Public Key Concept; RSA; Attacks on RSA; Timing attack.
• Authentication and Digital Signatures
  • Digital envelope; RSA Key Transport; Diffie-Hellman agreement; Man-in -the-middle attack; Digital signature; ElGamal Digital Signature; RSA Digital Signature; Digital Signature Algorithm.
• Key management
  • Session vs. Interchange keys; Simple key exchange protocol; Needham-Schroeder protocol; Denning-Sacco Modification; Kerberos;
• Introduction to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
  • Public key certificates; Certificates types; Certifications path; Common CAs; Key pair generation and storage; Registration authorities; Certificate Distribution via Directory Services; Lightweight Directory Access Protocol; X.509 Certificate Format; X.500 Names; Abstract Syntax Notation One ASN.1; Certificate revocation; CRL distribution; Short-Lived Certificates; Problems with PKI; Electronic contracts and digital signatures.
• Secure Sockets Level
  • Handshake Protocol; SSL Record Protocol; Security of SSL.
• Introduction to steganography
  • Pure steganography; Secret key steganography; Public key steganography; Security of steganography system; Possible applications; Text steganography.
• Steganographic techniques
  • Least significant bit substitution (LSB); Substitution systems; Transform domain techniques; Cover generation methods; Random interval method Pseudorandom permutations; Image downgrading; Cover regions and parity bits; Palette-based images.
• Digital Watermarking
  • Broadcast monitoring; Owner identification; Transaction tracking; Content authentication; E_Blind/D_LC; The patchwork algorithm; Scrambling attack; Synchronization attack; Copy attack; Ambiguity attack.
• Security of Electronic Payment Systems
  • Credit card validation algorithm; Electronic wallets; Blind signature; Dual signature; SET.
• The Attacker's Process
  • Passive reconnaissance; Exploiting the system; Uploading programs; Downloading data; Keeping access; Covering traces; Exploits; Information gathering; Finding the address range of the network; Finding active machines.
• Spoofing
  • Port scanning; Finding the OS; Types of spoofing; IP one-way spoofing; Protection against IP spoofing; Email spoofing; Web spoofing; Session tracking; Types of hijacking; Dangers of hijacking.
• DoS and DDoS
  • Ping of death; SSPing; Smurf; SYN Flood; Land exploit; Process-overload attacks; Disk attacks; Preventing DoS.
• Program security and buffer overflows
  • Nonmalicious program errors; The anatomy of buffer overflow; Incomplete mediation; Race conditions; Time-of-check to time-of-use errors.
• Protecting OS
  • Memory and address protection; File protection mechanisms; User authentication; Password security.
• Designing trusted OS
  • Security features of trusted OS; Kernalized design; Separation/isolation; Layered design; Assurance in trusted OS.
• UNIX security
  • Unix encrypted password system; Monitoring file formats; Protecting the root account; Integrity management Auditing and logging; UUCP security; NFS security; Wrappers and proxies; Writing secure SUID and network programs.
• Windows security
  • Securing Active directory; Securing permissions; Securing services; TCP/IP security; IE security; auditing security events; security for domain controllers; DNS; Terminal services; DHCP and WINS; Managing security updates.
• Database Security
  • Reliability and integrity; Two-phase update; Concurrency; Monitors; Protecting sensitive data; Inference; Multi-level databases.
• Computer viruses and worms
  • Boot sector infectors; Executable infectors; Multipartite viruses; Stealth viruses; Terminate and stay resident; Encrypted viruses; Polymorphic viruses; Macro viruses; Code Red.
• Confinement problem
  • Isolation, virtual machines and sandboxes; Covert Channels; Timing and storage channels; Noninterference; Shared resource matrix; Covert flow trees; Analysis of covert channels.
• Intrusion detection
  • Goals of IDS; Models of Intrusion Detection; Anomaly Detection; Threshold Metrics; Haystack; TIM; Monitoring system calls; Misuse Modeling; STAT; USTAT; Network Flight Recorder; Specification modeling; Parallel environmental grammars; IDS architecture; Agents; Director; Notifier; Distributed IDS.
• Password security
  • Attacks on password entry; Attacks on password storage; Maintaining shadow files; Race-conditions for password attacks.
• Firewalls
  • DMZ; Firewall components; Dual-ported host; Firewall with one choke; One choke and one gate; Filtering firewalls; Proxy firewalls; Firewall policy.
• Honeypots and honeytokens
  • Low, medium, and high-interaction honeypots; Honeypot architecture, monitoring, and configuration; Honeynets, Gen I, Gen II, Virtual Honeynets; Deploying and marinating honeynets; Honeytokens.
• Physical temper resistance
  • Medium-security processors, smart cards and microcontrollers
• Electronic and Information Warfare
  • Signals intelligence techniques; Attacks on communication; Surveillance and target acquisition; Directed energy weapons.
• Telecom system security
  • Phone breaking; Mobile phones; Cloning attacks against GSM systems.
• Wireless security
  • Threats unique to wireless (inserting new packets, Rogue clients, Rogue AP, Attack anonymity, War driving); Security problems in 802.11 based networks; RC4 encryption algorithm; CEC-32 to compute Integrity Check Value; Identity in WLAN; MAC-address-based access control; Authentication; WEP; TKIP.
• Administering security
  • Security planning; Risk Analysis; Organizational security policies.
• Legal, privacy, and ethical issues
  • Copyrights, patemts, and trade secrets; Information and the Law; Differences between Law and ethics; Controls protecting privacy.