Development of dynamic protection against timing channels

Information systems face many threats, such as covert channels, which declassify hidden information by, e.g., analyzing the program execution time. Such threats exist at various stages of the execution of instructions. Even if software developers are able to neutralize these threats in source code, new attack vectors can arise in compiler-generated machine code from these representations. Existing approaches for preventing vulnerabilities have numerous restrictions related to both their functionality and the range of threats that can be found and removed. This study presents a technique for removing threats and generating safer code using dynamic compilation in an execution environment by combining information from program analysis of the malicious code and re-compiling such code to run securely. The proposed approach stores summary information in the form of rules that can be shared among analyses. The annotations enable us to conduct the analyses to mitigate threats. Developers can update the analyses and control the volume of resources that are allocated to perform these analyses by changing the precision. The authors’ experiments show that the binary code created by applying the suggested method is of high quality.     

Remote Attestation on Legacy Operating Systems With Trusted Platform Modules

A lot of progress has been made to secure network communication, e.g., through the use of cryptographic algorithms. However, this offers only a partial solution as long as the communicating end points still suffer from security problems. A number of applications require remote verification of software executing on an untrusted platform. Trusted computing solutions propose to solve this problem through software and hardware changes, typically a secure operating system and the addition of a secure coprocessor respectively. On the other hand, timed execution of code checksum calculations aims for a solution on legacy platforms, but can not provide strong security assurance. We present a mixed solution by using the trusted computing hardware, namely the time stamping functionality of the trusted platform module, in combination with a timing based remote code integrity verification mechanism. In this way, we do not require a secure operating system, but at the same time the overall security of the timed execution scheme can be improved.     

Specification and analysis of timing requirements for real-time systems in the CBD approach

In real-time software, not only computation errors but also timing errors can cause system failures, which eventually result in significant physical damages or threats to human life. To efficiently guarantee the timely execution of expected functions, it is necessary to clearly specify and formally verify timing requirements before performing detailed system design. With the expected benefit of reusability and extensibility, component technology has been gradually applied to developing industrial applications including real-time systems. However, most of component-based approaches applied to real-time systems lack in a systematic and rigorous approach to specifying and verifying timing requirements at an earlier development stage. This paper proposes a component-based approach to specifying and verifying timing requirements for real-time systems in a systematic and compositional manner. We first describe behaviors of the constituent components including timing requirements in UML diagrams, and then translate the UML diagrams into MTER nets, an extension of TER nets, to perform timing analysis in a compositional way. The merit of the proposed approach is that the specification and analysis results can be reused and independently maintained.     

Integrating security and privacy in software development

As a consequence to factors such as progress made by the attackers, release of new technologies and use of increasingly complex systems, and threats to applications security have been continuously evolving. Security of code and privacy of data must be implemented in both design and programming practice to face such scenarios. In such a context, this paper proposes a software development approach, Privacy Oriented Software Development (POSD), that complements traditional development processes by integrating the activities needed for addressing security and privacy management in software systems. The approach is based on 5 key elements (Privacy by Design, Privacy Design Strategies, Privacy Pattern, Vulnerabilities, Context). The approach can be applied in two directions forward and backward, for developing new software systems or re-engineering an existing one. This paper presents the POSD approach in the backward mode together with an application in the context of an industrial project. Results show that POSD is able to discover software vulnerabilities, identify the remediation patterns needed for addressing them in the source code, and design the target architecture to be used for guiding privacy-oriented system re-engineering.

     

Hunter:一种指令集体系结构无关的二进制级动态测试用例生成技术

动态测试用例生成技术是一类新兴的软件测试技术。由于使用该类技术无需任何人工干预,也无需验证人员具备任何专业知识,同时该类技术能够无误地发现程序错误,越来越多的研究者采用该技术查找预发布的二进制级软件错误。然而,已有的该类技术及其实现系统不具有可重定向性,只能处理面向某种特定指令集体系结构(ISA)的二进制代码,进行测试用例的生成与查错。本文提出了一种全新的指令集体系结构无关的二进制级动态测试用例生成技术,以及实现该技术的系统Hunter。与已有的动态测试用例生成技术不同,Hunter具有极强的可重定向性,可对任何指令集体系结构的二进制代码进行查错,定向地为其生成指向不同执行路径的测试用例。Hunter定义了一套元指令集体系结构(MetaISA),将在二进制代码执行过程中收集到的所有执行信息映射为MetaISA,并对生成的MetaISA序列进行符号化执行、约束收集、约束求解以及测试用例生成,从而使整个过程与ISA无关。我们实现了Hunter,将其重定向至32位x86、PowerPC和Sparc ISA,并使用该系统为6个含有已知错误的测试程序查错。实验结果表明,由于MetaISA的引入,只需很小的开销,Hunter系统即可容易且有效地重定向至不同的ISA,并且Hunter能够有效地发现面向32位x86、PowerPC和Sparc ISA编写的二进制应用中隐藏极深的错误。     

MVX-CFI:一种实用的软件安全主动防御架构

软件安全是网络空间安全中最重要的环节。早期的软件安全解决方案大多是发现安全威胁后再逐一解决的被动防御方案。为了有效应对各类安全威胁,防御方法逐渐从被动过渡到主动。在众多的主动防御方法中,从系统执行架构角度出发构建内生防御能力的软件多变体执行架构技术受到了广泛关注,它通过异构、冗余执行体之间的相对正确性检查发现攻击行为,不依赖于具体安全威胁的特征检测,可实时检测并防御大多数已知、甚至未知安全威胁。然而,该方法面向实际应用部署存在较大的性能瓶颈。控制流完整性（CFI）是一种理想的安全解决方案,但由于其性能损失和兼容性问题也未被广泛采用。本文将两者有效结合提出一种基于多变体执行架构的CFI （MVX-CFI）。MVX-CFI是一种基于执行架构的、动态、透明的CFI实施方法,它能够有效捕获软件整个运行时控制流的走向并发现由攻击等恶意行为引起的非法路径转移。MVX-CFI通过MVX可形式化验证的高可信表决机制在运行时动态建立描述应用程序高频执行路径的控制流子图（Sub-CFG）,并作为检测模型正向反馈到MVX用于辅助检测,减少了传统MVX大量重复的表决工作,提高了MVX的执行性能。Sub-CFG具有在线分离软件执行过程中高频路径和低频路径的能力,这一特性为软件预置后门的检测提供了一种思路。实验评估表明,本文的改进方法提高了原架构的执行效率,同时保证了在安全防御方面的有效性。     

移动智能代理系统中主机的安全性研究

移动智能代理系统提供了一个新的计算方式,程序以软件代理的形式出现,它能在一台主机上停止它的执行,通过移动到另一台主机上来恢复执行。随着移动软件混合性的增加,也伴随着对安全的威胁,该文论述了agent主机面临的安全问题,同时提出了对agent主机的保护方法。     

一种基于动态插桩的JavaScript反事实执行方法

目前,静态分析技术已被广泛用于JavaScript程序的安全性分析。但是由于JavaScript支持通过eval等方法在运行时动态生成代码,仅靠静态分析难以取得动态生成代码。一种可行的解决方法是通过动态运行目标程序取得动态生成代码,再对其进行静态分析。然而,动态运行目标程序只能覆盖有限的执行路径,会遗漏其他执行路径中的动态生成代码。针对这一问题,基于动态插桩实现了一个反事实执行方法。该方法通过修改JavaScript引擎,在其语法解析阶段动态插入反事实执行体,使条件不成立的分支路径和当前执行路径均能够得到执行。通过该插桩方式,即使嵌套调用eval等方法,也能在其动态生成代码中完成插桩。同时,还实现了一种按需undo方法,以消除反事实执行体中赋值操作带来的影响,且能够避免冗余操作。实验结果表明,实现的方法能够有效地扩大动态分析中执行路径的覆盖面。     

Threat-driven modeling and verification of secure software using aspect-oriented Petri nets

Design-level vulnerabilities are a major source of security risks in software. To improve trustworthiness of software design, this paper presents a formal threat-driven approach, which explores explicit behaviors of security threats as the mediator between security goals and applications of security features. Security threats are potential attacks, i.e., misuses and anomalies that violate the security goals of systems' intended functions. Security threats suggest what, where, and how security features for threat mitigation should be applied. To specify the intended functions, security threats, and threat mitigations of a security design as a whole, we exploit aspect-oriented Petri nets as a unified formalism. Intended functions and security threats are modeled by Petri nets, whereas threat mitigations are modeled by Petri net-based aspects due to the incremental and crosscutting nature of security features. The unified formalism facilitates verifying correctness of security threats against intended functions and verifying absence of security threats from integrated functions and threat mitigations. As a result, our approach can make software design provably secured from anticipated security threats and, thus, reduce significant design-level vulnerabilities. We demonstrate our approach through a systematic case study on the threat-driven modeling and verification of a real-world shopping cart application.     

基于网络的移动代理系统安全模型的研究和分析

移动代理系统提供了一个新的计算方式，程序以软件代理的形式出现，它能在一台主机上停止它的执行，通过移动到另一台主机上恢复执行。随着移动软件混合性的增加，也伴随着对安全的威胁。该文论述了Mobile—gent面临的安全问题，也提出了一般的安全问题和解决这些威胁的措施。最后给出一个新的安全模型结构，并在实验原形系统上对这个安全模型结构的安全性进行了验证，对实验结果进行了分析。     

Criticality: static profiling for real-time programs

With the increasing performance demand in real-time systems it becomes more and more important to provide feedback to programmers and software development tools on the performance-relevant code parts of a real-time program. So far, this information was limited to an estimation of the worst-case execution time (WCET) and its associated worst-case execution path (WCEP) only. However, both, the WCET and the WCEP, only provide partial information. Only code parts that are on one of the WCEPs are indicated to the programmer. No information is provided for all other code parts. To give a comprehensive view covering the entire code base, tools in the spirit of program profiling are required. This work proposes an efficient approach to compute worst-case timing information for all code parts of a program using a complementary metric, called criticality. Every statement of a program is assigned a criticality value, expressing how critical the code is with respect to the global WCET. This gives valuable information how close the worst execution path passing through a specific program part is to the global WCEP. We formally define the criticality metric and investigate some of its properties with respect to dominance in control-flow graphs. Exploiting some of those properties, we propose an algorithm that reduces the overhead of computing the metric to cover complete programs. We also investigate ways to efficiently find only those code parts whose criticality is above a given threshold. Experiments using well-established real-time benchmark programs show an interesting distribution of the criticality values, revealing considerable amounts of highly critical as well as uncritical code. The metric thus provides ideal information to programmers and software development tools to optimize the worst-case execution time of these programs.     

浅析Web应用软件开发安全

Web应用软件的安全问题日益突出, 提高软件代码自身安全和在软件开过程中控制安全风险成为亟需解决的问题. 本文首先剖析了Web应用常见的安全漏洞, 分析其表现形式、形成原因、规避措施, 并提出了在软件开发生命周期全过程中预防安全漏洞的措施和方法. 通过从软件开发过程管理和技术手段两个方面系统性地预防Web应用安全风险, 有效地提高了交付Web应用软件的安全性.     

Designing end-to-end resource reservations in predictable distributed embedded systems

Contemporary distributed embedded systems in many domains have become highly complex due to ever-increasing demand on advanced computer controlled functionality. The resource reservation techniques can be effective in lowering the software complexity, ensuring predictability and allowing flexibility during the development and execution of these systems. This paper proposes a novel end-to-end resource reservation model for distributed embedded systems. In order to support the development of predictable systems using the proposed model, the paper provides a method to design resource reservations and an end-to-end timing analysis. The reservation design can be subjected to different optimization criteria with respect to runtime footprint, overhead or performance. The paper also presents and evaluates a case study to show the usability of the proposed model, reservation design method and end-to-end timing analysis.     

JavaScript引擎漏洞检测方法综述

由于语言特性导致的JavaScript引擎漏洞是当今应用软件软件安全的重要威胁之一,攻击者通常间接利用JavaScript引擎漏洞造成远程命令执行,获得系统的控制权。介绍了引擎的基本信息,对引擎中经常出现的漏洞进行了分类,分别综述了静态和动态分析检测的基本步骤和发展脉络,提出了针对JavaScript引擎漏洞的检测基本框架,讨论了制约检测效率瓶颈问题以及可能的解决方法,结合最新的技术应用指出了未来的发展趋势和亟待解决的问题。     

基于威胁模型的软件安全性测试

相对于传统测试主要关注软件的肯定需求,安全性测试则主要关注软件的否定需求。基于威胁模型的软件安全性测试是从攻击者的角度对软件进行测试。使用UML顺序图对安全威胁进行建模,从威胁模型中导出消息序列,从消息序列中导出威胁行为轨迹。程序编码完成后,对代码进行插桩以记录程序运行时的方法调用和执行的轨迹。设计测试用例,执行插桩后的程序并记录程序运行时的执行轨迹,将记录的程序执行轨迹与模型中导出的威胁行为轨迹进行比较,以确定程序中是否存在违反安全策略的威胁行为。     

A security model for Aglets

Mobile agents offer a new paradigm for distributed computation, but their potential benefits must be weighed against the very real security threats they pose. These threats originate not just in malicious agents but in malicious hosts as well. For example, if there is no mechanism to prevent attacks, a host can implant its own tasks into an agent or modify the agent's state. This can lead in turn to theft of the agent's resources if it has to pay for the execution of tasks, or to loss of the agent's reputation if its state changes from one host to another in ways that alter its behavior in negative ways. Aglets are mobile agents developed at IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory. The article describes a security model for the Aglets development environment that supports flexible architectural definition of security policies     

恶意代码的机理与模型研究

恶意代码是信息系统安全的主要威胁之一.从操作系统体系结构的角度研究了恶意代码的产生根源,指出PC操作系统中存在特权主体、内核扩展机制不安全,程序执行环境保护不力等弱点是造成恶意代码泛滥的本质原因.基于F.Cohen的计算机病毒定义,对计算机病毒的传播机理进行了形式化描述.研究了蠕虫程序的模块结构.建立了数据驱动型软件攻击的理论模型,分析了其构成威胁的本质原因.     

Static program analysis assisted dynamic taint tracking for software vulnerability discovery

The evolution of computer science has exposed us to the growing gravity of security problems and threats. Dynamic taint analysis is a prevalent approach to protect a program from malicious behaviors, but fails to provide any information about the code which is not executed. This paper describes a novel approach to overcome the limitation of traditional dynamic taint analysis by integrating static analysis into the system and presents framework SDCF to detect software vulnerabilities with high code coverage. Our experiments show that SDCF is not only able to provide efficient runtime protection by introducing an overhead of 4.16× based on the taint tracing technique, but is also capable of discovering latent software vulnerabilities which have not been exploited, and achieve code coverage of more than 90%.     

GenUTest: a unit test and mock aspect generation tool

Unit testing plays a major role in the software development process. What started as an ad hoc approach is becoming a common practice among developers. It enables the immediate detection of bugs introduced into a unit whenever code changes occur. Hence, unit tests provide a safety net of regression tests and validation tests which encourage developers to refactor existing code with greater confidence. One of the major corner stones of the agile development approach is unit testing. Agile methods require all software classes to have unit tests that can be executed by an automated unit-testing framework. However, not all software systems have unit tests. When changes to such software are needed, writing unit tests from scratch, which is hard and tedious, might not be cost effective. In this paper we propose a technique which automatically generates unit tests for software that does not have such tests. We have implemented GenUTest, a prototype tool which captures and logs interobject interactions occurring during the execution of Java programs, using the aspect-oriented language AspectJ. These interactions are used to generate JUnit tests. They also serve in generating mock aspects—mock object-like entities, which enable testing units in isolation. The generated JUnit tests and mock aspects are independent of the tool, and can be used by developers to perform unit tests on the software. Comprehensiveness of the unit tests depends on the software execution. We applied GenUTest to several open source projects such as NanoXML and JODE. We present the results, explain the limitations of the tool, and point out direction to future work to improve the code coverage provided by GenUTest and its scalability.     

A security protocol for mobile agents based upon the cooperation of sedentary agents

Despite its many benefits, mobile agent technology results in significant security threats from agents and hosts. This paper presents a protocol which protects mobile agents from malicious hosts. This protocol combines four concepts: the cooperation between a mobile agent and a sedentary agent; the reference execution (reliable platforms which shelter our cooperating sedentary agents); the cryptography and the digital signature to ensure safe inter-agent communication and time-limited execution (timeout). A dynamic approach which makes use of a timer to make it possible to detect a mobile agent's code re-execution was used. The attack on agent permanent modification was also dealt with. Moreover, the protocol is sufficiently robust so that it is durable and fault tolerant.