week 2 network security
Network Security
1.1 What is the OSI Security architecture?
OSI Security Architecture is a composition providing an orderly way of requirement's definition of security and the unique approaches to satisfying the desired requirements. The document focuses on the understanding of security attacks, mechanism and services.
1.2 What is the difference between passive and active security threads?
Passive attacks are the attacks which involve unauthorized attacker indulges in data monitoring of information transfer between sender and receiver. Active attacks are attacks involving an authorized attacker focusing on altering information being transferred hence conveying the wrong message to the receiver. The two attacks have differences, and active attacks create serious harm to the system because of data alteration while passive attackers do not. A passive attack is associated with adverse effects to data confidentiality, and in contrast, the active attack is prone to affecting integrity and availability of data (Zhu, Hu, Hou & Ding, 2014). The active attack involves achieving the physical control of the communication channel while passive attack focuses on observing transmission of information.
1.3 List and briefly define categories of passive and active security attacks.
Passive Attacks
Release of Message Contents
The attack requires monitoring messages conveyed, exposing confidential information to unauthorized individuals.
Traffic Analysis
Traffic analysis involves analyzing the information transfer from the sender to the receiver. Increase in traffic is associated with an increase in the number of message transfer, while a decrease caused by minimal information transfer (Kolias, Meng, Kambourakis & Chen, 2019).
Active attacks
Masquerade
The category of security attack occurs when an unauthorized attacker impersonates authorized individual in terms of message transmission.
Modification of messages
The classification of active attacks involves altering the desired information by adding or omitting the messages.
Denial of Service
The attack involves tampering with the system, making it unavailable to the intended users.
1.4 List and briefly define categories of security services
The security service consists of several security services which consist the following,
Authentication
The services offered involve checking the end user’s legitimacy by checking on both peer entity and data origin authentication. Focus is on communicating entities’ legitimacy.
Access Control Data
The security service involves avoiding unauthorized use of resources, after authentication control of access is efficient limiting resource access.
Data confidentiality
Data is protected to ensure that the access is only limited to the right users avoiding disclosure to attackers.
Data integrity
The service involves assurance that information sent should be exact as the one received from an authorized entity.
Nonrepudiation
The service protects information transfer to ensure no entity denies participating in a communication process.
Availability of Service
The system resource should be available always when demanded by authorized individuals.
1.5 List and briefly categories of security Mechanisms.
Security mechanisms include,
Digital signature
The mechanism involves cryptographic transformation which allows data recipient to provide evidence on data integrity and help protect against forgery.
Encipherment
It is a data transformation mechanism using a mathematical algorithm to a data form which is not readily intelligible.
Access Control
The mechanism deals with monitoring and enforcing access rights to resources.
Authentication Exchange
The mechanism purposely identifies the target entities through exchange of information.
Routing Control
It ensures that data passes through selected physical secure routes and also allows routing changes when data is affected by security breaches (Grierson, 2015)..
Notarization
The mechanism involves including a third party in assuring typical and specific properties of data exchange.
1.6 List and briefly define the fundamental security design principles.
Security design principles are as follows,
Isolation
It consists in separating processes, systems files and security and allowing accessibility when needed.
Psychological Acceptability
The usability of the system should not be interfered by security mechanisms and the security purpose to meet authorization needs achieved (Grierson, 2015).
Layering
The method involves the use of many overlapping protections.
Fail-Safe-Default
A security mechanism should focus on offering permission monitoring rather than excluding users.
Economy of Mechanism
The system design should be small and straightforward.
1.7 Explain diff. between an attack surface and an attack tree.
Attack surface is the available and readily exploited problems in a functioning system including ports, interface and employees. Attack tree is a formal, ranked and systematic way of describing the security system in terms of data structure and represent the potentiality of set techniques to curb the vulnerabilities.
1. Grierson, H. (2015). A Set of Principles for Distributed-Design Information Storing. Design
a. n Principles And Practices: An International Journal—Annual Review, 5(3), 607-624. doi: 10.18848/1833-1874/cgp/v05i03/38088.
2. Kolias, C., Meng, W., Kambourakis, G., & Chen, J. (2019). Security, Privacy, and Trust on
a. Internet of Things. Wireless Communications And Mobile Computing, 2019, 1-3. doi: 10.1155/2019/6452157.
3. Zhu, X., Hu, D., Hou, Z., & Ding, L. (2014). A location privacy preserving solution to resist
a. passive and active attacks in VANET. China Communications, 11(9), 60-67. doi: 10.1109/cc.2014.6969711.