Hardware Security Modules Research Articles

Analysis and Improvement of a Robust User Authentication Framework for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

As an infrastructure of the ubiquitous sensor networks, the wireless sensor network plays an important role in generation of multi-networks integrated system. And currently the wireless sensor network is not only being used to monitor and analyze information about the environment but also being used for more dynamic systems. The security system is one of standards for measuring whether a wireless sensor networks is an outstanding wireless sensor network. RUASN proposes a robust user authentication framework for wireless sensor networks, based on a two-factor concept. This proposed scheme possessed many advantages against major existing attacks and performed well at efficiency and low consumption. However, we have identified that the resistance of collusion attacks is weak. After analyzing, we proved that we can obtain the session key via controlling a compromised sensor node and using the collusion attack when a user wants to establish a session with a legal node. Therefore, to enhance the resistance of collusion attacks, we present two ways to solve the security drawbacks of RUASN scheme. One is to add a slight improvement into the RUASN scheme to enhance this scheme. Another is using the Hardware Security Module. After a simple analysis, we have proved that the improved scheme can resist the collusion attack.

Stateless cryptography for virtual environments

Migrating systems onto virtualized environments, such as cloud platforms, is becoming a business imperative. Such platforms offer the promise of higher resilience combined with a relatively low cost of ownership. The platforms also involve a number of challenges that hinder their adoption, and a primary concern involves security. These security concerns stem in part from vulnerabilities that underlying virtualization functionality introduces, such as the ability to capture and replay the execution state of a virtualized machine. In systems where security is paramount, HSMs (hardware security modules) are often used. HSMs provide a tamper-resistant environment for storing sensitive cryptographic material and for executing cryptographic operations using this material. HSMs may appear to be important components for enhancing the security of virtual environments; however, current implementations are not well suited for this purpose. In this paper, we describe a typical HSM solution stack based on the de facto industry standard called PKCS #11 (Public Key Cryptography Standard # 11). We explain the challenges introduced by virtualized platforms and show why the typical architectures based on PKCS #11 are not suitable for such environments. Finally, we describe an alternative IBM HSM solution called EP11 (Enterprise PKCS #11) and show how it addresses many of these challenges.

Network Security Issues in Context of RSNA and Firewall

Network Security is a major issue in wired and wireless network. Wireless Network is more vulnerable to attack. Vulnerability is the threat to the network in the form of virus or the way used by attacker in order to breach the security and bypass the security measures. IEEE 802.11i and 802.11-2007 provides RSNA methods for wireless network security. WECA, the alliance for Wi-Fi devices provides WPA2 modes of security. The responsibility of network administer is to provide network resources to the legitimate and authorized users and at the same is to protect it from illegitimate and misuse by unauthorized, immoral unlawful clients and cyber criminals and also to find the solution for the other security threats such as Phishing, malware and malicious code. The Network resources are made available by way of authentication and authorization of users. The protection against illegal and misuse of network is taken place by applying some RSNA and WPA2 Methods. But these authentications, authorizations and protections of RSNA and WPA2 modes are weak and vulnerable to numerous attacks and its advanced version such as 802.11n with AES gets compatibility issues with software as well as with hardware. This Paper, by developing a practical network scenario and configuring its devices according to various RSNA and WPA2 modes examines these security measures and conclude that these security methods are not sufficient and requires more other measures. These others measures such as web browser compatibilities, OS effectiveness, firewall and hardware security modules have been taken into account in order to develop a secure wireless Network Model. Various Network Monitoring tools have also been used to show that how easily the security is breached and/or bypassed. General Terms Network, Security, RSNA, 802.11, firewall, Phishing

Analysis of a hardware security module's high-availability setting

Analysis of a hardware security module (HSM) revealed two flaws that could lead to security problems. The first involved key deletion; the second involved unauthorized members of a group of HSMs. Neither flaw is probably fatal, if organizations develop organizational ways to work around it. However, for organizations to apply the solutions, they must be aware of the flaws.

Security Issues of Multi-Core Architectures — The Automotive Case

Abstract The ever-increasing demands for computational power as well as cost reduction and energy efficiency can only be met by a move towards multi-core architectures. Such architectures offer great benefits, particularly within the automotive domain, because the more than 80 microcontrollers in a car can be merged into a few highly-integrated multi-core systems. This will save costs and power. Unfortunately, multi-core systems pose specific security problems. The article will discuss new and extended security risks that evolve from multi-core characteristics like parallelization and resource sharing. These risks aside, multi-core architectures also offer opportunities to improve overall system security. Future research is required to endow next generation multi-core architectures with appropriate security concepts, such as secure virtualization based on Hardware Security Modules, improved attack and misbehavior detection using tailored self-monitoring, and attack-tolerance techniques.

Caveat venditor

Tamper-resistant Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are a core technology used to build assurance in the security of large IT systems protecting and manipulating sensitive data. This paper draws on the authors years of experience working to deploy HSM-based solutions in the financial industry. We argue that as soon as you scratch the surface of the simple “buy and forget” model where an HSM is bought to satisfy a compliance requirement, the buyer encounters initial and ongoing challenges when trying to cover all the bases for security. There is now (compared with 10 years ago) a good public literature on HSM vulnerabilities, but even checking resistance against known threats and attack classes becomes very difficult in practice, let alone considering theoretic and new attacks which have not been widely implemented across HSM platforms. Part of the problem is the lack of security details in vendor information, part is lack of awareness of the issues for the buyers. Some older attacks such as the decimalisation table attack have been largely addressed; others such as PIN block translation (and other oracles) have not. This paper argues that the balance of responsibility between buyer and vendor to maintain security awareness has much room for improvement, and that existing certification processes such as FIPS-140 leave huge gaps that need to be covered when building assurance. In the retail sector strong buyer protections exist because the layperson cannot be expected to understand and manage all the relevant risks, but in the financial industry the assumption has been that buyers have the skills to evaluate the products – “Caveat Emptor”. But maybe it is time to redress this balance with a little “Caveat Venditor”?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Protecting Data in a Retail Environment

The overall purpose of information security is to control risk by managing impact of threats to information assets in most cost-effective manner. This article takes a look at a typical Point-Of-Sale (POS) solution, identifying common architectural weaknesses that can lead to data compromise. Specifically, key business priorities are assessed against POS architecture to vet solution for potential security shortcomings that could prevent it from carrying out its business mission. In many retail organizations, principal business objectives are to achieve compliance to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) to avoid fines and maintain proper standing in industry, while protecting brand name by avoiding breaches of customer credit card data. Many retail solutions have been carefully designed from both security and business goal perspectives. They may use hardening features such as PKI-driven strong mutual authentication of all system components, rigorous encryption of data in transit and at rest, secure unlock and update processes, etc. to be able to safely and reliably operate in most hostile of networking environments. A computer containing sensitive data that is physically stolen from a retail site can represent of a significant risk. Careful balance between business goals and security reduce risk of a compromise that can threaten retail organization's brand reputation and business operations. Compliance to PCI is not enough to safeguard information in a retail environment. This article will also assist in guiding security efforts in a POS environment. For example, weaknesses discussed here can prove to be effective at prioritizing testing attention and effort. In other words, testing, design review, code review, penetration testing, etc., processes should be prioritized in order to make most effective use of available development resources. Some mature security solutions are also environmentally friendly and addresses the green security challenge by delivering software solutions that operate on existing computing infrastructure, typically on same server as application or database being secured. The appropriate level of encryption key protection can be achieved by using a well balanced combination of software cryptography and selective use of small footprint standard commodity type Hardware Security Modules. This environmentally friendly approach can provide needed balance of protection, cost, operational needs and avoid installation of a large number of appliances.

Formal analysis of PIN block attacks

Personal identification number (PIN) blocks are 64-bit strings that encode a PIN ready for encryption and secure transmission in banking networks. These networks employ tamper-proof hardware security modules (HSMs) to perform sensitive cryptographic operations, such as checking the correctness of a PIN typed by a customer. The use of these HSMs is controlled by an API designed to enforce security. PIN block attacks are unanticipated sequences of API commands which allow an attacker to determine the value of a PIN in an encrypted PIN block. This paper describes a framework for formal analysis of such attacks. Our analysis is probabilistic, and is automated using constraint logic programming and probabilistic model checking.

Truncation attacks on MACs

A new type of attack on message authentication codes (MACs) is introduced which takes advantage of possible weaknesses in interfaces to hardware security modules. In particular, if a module does not fix the degree of MAC truncation employed, then potentially serious attacks are possible.