More Like this

1. Developing a Modular Cloud-Based Kubernetes Powered Framework for Scalable Cybersecurity Education

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3649409.3691088  

   Selikow, Ryder; Berol, Nate; Cook, Jack; Weiss, Richard; Mache, Jens (December 2024, ACM)

   We explore building a Kubernetes-powered, cloud-based cybersecurity education platform and framework named “EDURange Cloud”. It allows instructors to efficiently design and host their own cybersecurity competitions and exercises. The benefits of this system include enhanced security through isolated instances, cost-effective scaling that adjusts resources based on demand, and the agility to deploy or update challenges rapidly. Originally focused primarily on hosting Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions, the scope of EDURange Cloud will include support for cybersecurity demos and other educational exercises. This evolution will allow for a broader range of educational opportunities within the platform. EDURange Cloud was created as a distributed cloud alternative to the existing EDURange software \cite{Weiss2017Cybersecurity}, leveraging the power of Kubernetes to create an efficient and highly modular cybersecurity education framework. In addition to providing better load balancing and achievement tracking, EDURange Cloud extends the existing project by enabling full GUI desktop environments that are also much more easily customizable compared to command-line restricted exercises. The continued development of this platform could provide a new format for a wide range of hands-on exercises, going beyond just cybersecurity. 

   more » « less
2. ‘Under-reported’ Security Defects in Kubernetes Manifests

   https://doi.org/10.1109/EnCyCriS52570.2021.00009  

   Bose, Dibyendu Brinto; Rahman, Akond; Shamim, Shazibul Islam (July 2021, 2021 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems (EnCyCriS))

   null (Ed.)

   With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, industry practitioners are moving towards container-based infrastructure for managing their digital workloads. Kubernetes, a container orchestration tool, is reported to help industry practitioners in automated management of cloud infrastructure and rapid deployment of software services. Despite reported benefits, Kubernetes installations are susceptible to security defects, as it occurred for Tesla in 2018. Understanding how frequently security defects appear in Kubernetes installations can help cybersecurity researchers to investigate security-related vulnerabilities for Kubernetes and generate security best practices to avoid them. In this position paper, we first quantify how frequently security defects appear in Kubernetes manifests, i.e., configuration files that are use to install and manage Kubernetes. Next, we lay out a list of future research directions that researchers can pursue.We apply qualitative analysis on 5,193 commits collected from 38 open source repositories and observe that 0.79% of the 5,193 commits are security-related. Based on our findings, we posit that security-related defects are under-reported and advocate for rigorous research that can systematically identify undiscovered security defects that exist in Kubernetes manifests. We predict that the increasing use of Kubernetes with unresolved security defects can lead to large-scale security breaches. 

   more » « less
3. Security Analysis of AWS-based Video Surveillance Systems

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEET53442.2021.9659574  

   Aklamati, Davies; Abdus-Shakur, Basheerah; Kacem, Thabet (October 2021, 2021 International Conference on Engineering and Emerging Technologies (ICEET))

   In the last few years, Cloud computing technology has benefited many organizations that have embraced it as a basis for revamping the IT infrastructure. Cloud computing utilizes Internet capabilities in order to use other computing resources. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most widely used cloud providers that leverages the endless computing capabilities that the cloud technology has to offer. AWS is continuously evolving to offer a variety of services, including but not limited to, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and packaged software as a service. Among the other important services offered by AWS is Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) that is a hosted cloud-based video surveillance service. Even though this technology is complex and widely used, some security experts have pointed out that some of its vulnerabilities can be exploited in launching attacks aimed at cloud technologies. In this paper, we present a holistic security analysis of cloud-based video surveillance systems by examining the vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks that these technologies are susceptible to. We illustrate our findings by implementing several of these attacks on a test bed representing an AWS-based video surveillance system. The main contributions of our paper are: (1) we provided a holistic view of the security model of cloud based video surveillance summarizing the underlying threats, vulnerabilities and mitigation techniques (2) we proposed a novel taxonomy of attacks targeting such systems (3) we implemented several related attacks targeting cloud-based video surveillance system based on an AWS test environment and provide some guidelines for attack mitigation. The outcome of the conducted experiments showed that the vulnerabilities of the Internet Protocol (IP) and other protocols granted access to unauthorized VSaaS files. We aim that our proposed work on the security of cloud-based video surveillance systems will serve as a reference for cybersecurity researchers and practitioners who aim to conduct research in this field. 

   more » « less
4. An REU/RET Project: IoT Platform and Network Data Visualization

   Toutsop, O. (November 2021, 2021 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Meeting)

   Internet of Things (IoT) is a connected network of devices that exchange data using different protocols. The application of IoT ranges from intelligent TVs and intelligent Refrigerators to smart Transportation. This research aims to provide students with hands-on training on how to develop an IoT platform that supports device management, connectivity, and data management. People tend to build interconnected devices without having a basic understanding of how the IoT platform backend function. Studying the Arm Pelion will help to understand how IoT devices operate under the hood. This past summer, Morgan State University has hosted undergraduate engineering students and high school STEM teachers to conduct IoT security research in the Cybersecurity Assurance & Policy (CAP) Center. The research project involved integrating various hardware sensor devices and real-time data monitoring using the Arm Pelion IoT development platform. Some of the student/teacher outcomes from the project include: 1) Learning about IoT Technology and security; 2) Programming an embedded system using Arm Mbed development board and IDE; 3 3) Developing a network of connected IoT devices using different protocols such as LWM2M, MQTT, CoAP; 4) Investigating the cybersecurity risks associated with the platform; and 5) Using data analysis and visualization to understand the network data and packet flow. First, the student/teacher must consider the IoT framework to understand how to address the security. The IoT framework describes the essential functions of an IoT network, breaking it down into separate layers. These layers include an application layer, middleware layer, and connectivity layer. The application layer allows the users to access the platform via a smartphone or any other dashboard. The Middleware layer represents the backend system that provides edge devices with data management, messaging, application services, and authentication. Finally, the connectivity layer includes devices that connect the user to the network, including Bluetooth or WiFi. The platform consists of several commercial IoT devices such as a smart camera, baby monitor, smart light, and other devices. We then create algorithms to classify the network data flow; to visualize the packets flow in the network and the structure of the packets data frame over time. 

   more » « less
5. Poster: Efficient Exploration of Automotive Ranging Sensor Attacks

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3565287.3617986  

   Carter, Jack; Yedla Ravi, Bhagawat Baanav; Kabir, Md Rafiul; Ray, Sandip (October 2023, MobiHoc '23: Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing)

   Security is a critical challenge in emergent autonomous vehicles. However, the security challenges in automotive systems are not widely understood even in the cybersecurity community. To address this problem, we develop an adaptable exploration platform for automotive security. This platform enables users to gain hands-on experience and insights into security vulnerabilities. We discuss specic challenges and prerequisites involved in designing such an exploration tool. We demonstrate the platform’s capabilities by exploring automotive ranging sensor attacks. 

   more » « less