453 Network Security

Section 1: Introduction to Network

Security
Dr. E.C. Kulasekere

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology - 2006

Text Books
Network Security: Private Communication
in a Public World, Charlie Kaufman,
Pearson Education Inc., 2002
Network Security: A Complete Reference
Roberta Bragg, Mark Rhodes-Ousley,
Keith Strassberg Tata McGraw-Hill
2004.
Cryptography and Network Security/3e
William Stallings, Pearson Ed. 2003.

Syllabus

Foundations of computer and network security.

Access Control and Site Security.
Threats and vulnerabilities.
Attack Methods.
Technical defenses: authentication, operating
system security, firewalls, etc.
Elements of Cryptography.
Cryptographic Systems: SSL/TLS, VPNs,
Kerberos.
Application Security: Electronic Commerce and
E-mail.

Syllabus
Network vulnerability assessment and
intrusion detection.
Remediation methods, including backup
and repair strategies.
Business continuity planning and disaster
recovery planning
Legal issues, privacy, cyber war and cyber
terror.

Other Information
Web site:
http://www.ent.mrt.ac.lk/~ekulasek/ns

Email:
ekulasek@ent.mrt.ac.lk

Telephone:
Found at website.

All information will be updated on the

website since I am a visiting instructor.

Expectation from Students

Friendly atmosphere in class.

Student involvement in discussions.
Complete laboratory work in time.
Do individual assignments by yourself and
not copy.
Have an attitude that the course is for
learning and not for passing exams.

Outline For this Section

Computer Security, Laws and Crime

Attacks, services and mechanisms
Security attacks and security services
Methods of defense
Model for internetwork security, Internet
standards and Request for comments.
Cryptographic algorithms
Secure protocols
Authentication, access control.

Security is it a New Concept?

Lock the Doors and Windows. Control access
Role Based Access - Only Mom is allowed to
enter
Dont talk to strangers - even if you see some
one you know Look beyond.
Dont share your secrets keep sniffers at bay
Dont accept gifts from strangers
Play nice with others
Leave your valuables at home. Dont steal
Keep your shots up to date
If you see something wrong, call the police.

Levels of Security
Information security
Early days, security was provided by physical
access restrictions.
With networking this changed.

Computer security
Restriction to shared resource
Physical security

Network security
Protection of data during transmission.
Infrastructure setup for security. Eg. Bastion
host
Are these definitions enough?

More Classifications
Three Ds of security
Detection: tool based by monitoring
Defense: patching and updating
Deterrence: laws and policy making

Classification based on business

Business agility
Return on investment
Risk management and business continuity
planning
Customer confidence

Attack, Services and Mechanisms

Security attack: any action that will
compromise the security of information.
Security mechanism: A mechanism that is
designed to detect , prevent, or recover from
a security attack.
Security services: A service that enhances
the security of data processing systems and
information transfers. A security service
makes use of one or more security
mechanisms.

Security Attacks
Normal flow of Information

source

destination

Security Attacks
Interception

Unauthorized party gets access to information

This is an attack on confidentiality
The attacker could be a person or program.
Eg. of this could be unauthorized copying of files.

Security Attacks
Interruption

The system is destroyed or becomes unavailable

This is an attack on availability.
This could be a destruction of a piece of hardware
or cutting a communication line.

Security Attacks
Modification

An unauthorized party gains access to information

and also modifies it.
This is an attack on integrity of information.
Modification of program or date files to operate or
contain different information.

Security Attacks
Fabrication

An unauthorized party injects fabricated information

into the system.
This is an attack on authenticity.
Examples of this is insertion of spurious messages,
addition of records to a file etc.

Attack Types
Passive Attack:
This type of attack does not involve the
parties concerned.
Does not alter the information flowing
between the parties.

Active Attack
This type of attack involves the other parties
concerned.
The information flow is altered.

Passive Attack
This type of attacks are hard to detect since it does
not involve the other party or alter the data.
This kind of attack can be prevented rather than
detected.
Examples are Eavesdropping or monitoring of
traffic.
The objective of the opponent is to obtain the
information that is being transmitted.
Release of message content Opponent getting to
know the contents.
Traffic analysis the link traffic profile and information
gathering is done by the opponent.

Active Attack
This is easier to detect since the
information stream is altered and involves
the other party.
Harder to prevent since no absolute
protection is available with the current
buggy systems.
Involves some modification of the data
stream or creation of a false stream.
Masquerading The entity pretends to be a different
entity. Eg. Use a sniffer on a telnet stream
Replay passive capture of data, alter and then
retransmit.

Security Services
Confidentiality (privacy) is the protection of
transmitted data from passive attacks.
Authentication (who created or sent the data) is
assuring that the communication is authentic.
Integrity (has not been altered) will ensure that the
messages are received with no duplication,
insertion, modification. Reordering or replays.
Connection oriented service addresses DoS and
modifications (duplication, insertion, modification and
reordering problems handled).
Connectionless service - deals with only individual
messages and only assures against modification. This is
because it only deals with individual packets.

Security Mechanisms
Separation

Physical separation
Temporal separation
Logical separation
cryptographic separation
combinations of all above

Share all or nothing

share via access limitations
share by capabilities (tokens)
limit use of an object

Relationship Between
Services and Mechanisms

A Model for Network Security

Design Issues in the Model

Design an algorithm for performing the securityrelated transformation. The algorithm should be
such that an opponent cannot defeat its purpose.
Generate the secret information to be used with the
algorithm.
Develop methods for the distribution and sharing of
the secret information.
Specify a protocol to be used by the two principles
that makes use of the security algorithm and the
secret information to achieve a particular security
service.

Other Considerations
Network Design Considerations
Designing for acceptable risk.
Use of network models with security (LAN/WAN more
secure?, Dedicated/non-dedicated?, segregation and
isolation)

Host hardening
Firewalls, Packet filtering

Choice of network devices

Choice of routers and other hardware
Routing protocols

Intrusion detection systems (IDS)

Host based IDS
Network based IDS

Security Highlighted
Kevin Mitnick
FBI arrested Kevin in February 1995
stealing 20,000 credit-card numbers
through the Internet. Valued at over one
million dollars.
broke into the computer of Tsutomu
Shimomura, a computer-security expert.
managed to get access to a set of utility
programs, that would basically give him the
tools necessary to break-in almost anywhere.
may have distributed these tools to other
hackers.

The Downside!!
Kevin served five years in a Federal
correctional institution before being
released in January 2000.
Now charges $15,000 for a one hour
talk !!

Security Highlighted - Kevin Mitnick

FBI arrested Kevin in February 1995
stealing 20,000 credit-card numbers
through the Internet
valued at over one million dollars.