An Approach for Identifying and Analyzing Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

Jaskolka, Jason; Villasenor, John

doi:10.1109/tr.2017.2665164

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Given the specification of the port terminal coordination system, we can identify the implicit interactions that are present in the system using the approaches presented in [1], [2]. After performing a full system analysis, it can be shown that there are 3902 implicit interactions out of the 4596 total possible system interactions.…”

Section: Implicit Interactions Present In the Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As another example, consider the implicit interaction represented as p 13 def = SV 1 → E TM → E SV 2 . In this case, the set of possible attack scenarios is given by attack p 13 = {berth [1], berth [2], numCranes [1], numCranes [2]}. This shows that a compromised SV 1 can exploit the given implicit interaction by modifying any, or all, of the variables berth [1], berth [2], numCranes [1], and/or numCranes [2], which are used by TM to determine the crane allocations.…”

Section: Definition 5 (Attack Scenario Determination) Given An Implic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous work [1], [2], we developed a rigorous and systematic approach for identifying the existence of implicit interactions in distributed systems. The approach involves the specification and analysis of the communication among system components using the Communicating Concurrent Kleene Algebra (C 2 KA) modeling framework [3], [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The approach is based on attack scenario determination, which looks to find the set of possible ways in which a compromised system agent can exploit a particular implicit interaction to mount a cyber-attack that influences the behaviour of other agents in the system. The attack scenario determination involves an analysis of the set of implicit interactions identified using the technique proposed in [2] and the C 2 KA specification of the system. Using the results of the attack scenario determination for an identified implicit interaction, we compute a measure of its exploitability to more accurately assess the threat that it poses to the overall safety, security, and reliability of the system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating the Exploitability of Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

Jaskolka

2020

Preprint

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Implicit interactions refer to those interactions among the components of a system that may be unintended and/or unforeseen by the system designers. As such, they represent cybersecurity vulnerabilities that can be exploited to mount cyber-attacks causing serious and destabilizing system effects. In this paper, we study implicit interactions in distributed systems specified using the algebraic modeling framework known as Communicating Concurrent Kleene Algebra (C 2 KA). To identify and defend against a range of possible attack scenarios, we develop a new measure of exploitability for implicit interactions to aid in evaluating the threat posed by the existence of such vulnerabilities in system designs for launching cyber-attacks. The presented approach is based on the modeling and analysis of the influence and response of the system agents and their C 2 KA specifications. We also demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach using a prototype tool that supports the automated analysis. The rigorous, practical techniques presented here enable cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the designs of distributed systems to be more easily identified, assessed, and then mitigated, offering significant improvements to overall system resilience, dependability, and security.

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Section: Implicit Interactions Present In the Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Definition 5 (Attack Scenario Determination) Given An Implic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating the Exploitability of Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

Jaskolka

2020

Preprint

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“…Large systems tend to be complex in their architecture and may obscure potential vulnerabilities from the system architects. Implicit interactions which refer to such unintended or unforeseen interactions between system elements are an example of how potential vulnerabilities may go undetected in such systems [JV17].…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Security of System Designs

Samuel¹

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Improving system security during the design phase is challenging but can be costeffective in the long run. Security metrics are a way to measure and manage a system's ability to minimize possible attack opportunities. While several designlevel security metrics exist to evaluate vulnerabilities in system design, it is unclear which metrics provide a sound scientific basis for their characterization. Lack of security knowledge among average development teams and the lack of tool support are additional challenges.In this work, we present a data-driven approach for the security evaluation of system designs to address the above challenges. The approach aims to incrementally improve system security and decision-making at design time. We integrate the attack surface metric which we found to be sound in our evaluation of widely-used security metrics and leverage external data sources to characterize the structural security posture of software systems. Several tools are developed to automate the approach.I express my sincere gratitude to Professor James Green who played a critical role in advancing my research career. His willingness to enable me to explore and apply my ideas, however ambitious they may be, allowed me to further my learning and impact the community in more ways than one. I thank Professor Mohammed Ibnkhala who encouraged me to pursue graduate studies and provided me with the guidance and resources needed to succeed. I convey my heartfelt gratitude to my family for all their love, encouragement, and support. I also thank my friends who were more than happy to hear about my work and encourage me throughout this journey.iii

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Identifying and Analyzing Implicit Interactions in a Wastewater Dechlorination System

Jaskolka

2020

Computer Security

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An Approach for Identifying and Analyzing Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

Evaluating the Exploitability of Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

Evaluating the Exploitability of Implicit Interactions in Distributed Systems

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Security of System Designs

Identifying and Analyzing Implicit Interactions in a Wastewater Dechlorination System

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