Identify Security Vulnerabilities Research Articles

Evaluasi Risiko Celah Keamanan Aplikasi E-Office menggunakan Metode OWASP

Based on data from Badan Siber dan Sandi Negara (BSSN) in 2022, it was reported that a total of 1,950 security vulnerabilities were found in 457 electronic systems across various applications widely used by the public. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the risk of existing security vulnerabilities in the E-Office application and determine the level and impact that these vulnerabilities can cause. This research focuses on information system security, specifically evaluating the risk of security vulnerabilities in the E-Office application of the Ogan Ilir Regency. The research was conducted using the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) method with a risk rating assessment. The research process began with a literature review to gather data and information sources, determine the scope and research objectives, test, identify security vulnerabilities, analyze security vulnerabilities, and the results of the analysis. The research subject is the E-Office application of Ogan Ilir Regency, with the object of the research being the security vulnerabilities in that application. OWASPZap was used as a tool to obtain data on security vulnerabilities, and using OWASPZap, 38 security vulnerabilities were found, with 18 of them meeting the criteria of the OWASP Top 10. Our findings indicate that the security vulnerabilities in the E-Office application of Ogan Ilir Regency include vulnerabilities in authentication levels, access control, configuration, and data validation processes.

JustSTART: How to Find an RSA Authentication Bypass on Xilinx UltraScale(+) with Fuzzing

Fuzzing is a well-established technique in the software domain to uncover bugs and vulnerabilities. Yet, applications of fuzzing for security vulnerabilities in hardware systems are scarce, as principal reasons are requirements for design information access, i.e., HDL source code. Moreover, observation of internal hardware state during runtime is typically an ineffective information source, as its documentation is often not publicly available. In addition, such observation during runtime is also inefficient due to bandwidth-limited analysis interfaces, i.e., JTAG, and minimal introspection of hardware-internal modules.In this work, we investigate fuzzing for Xilinx 7-Series and UltraScale(+) FPGA configuration engines, the control plane governing the (secure) bitstream configuration within the FPGA. Our goal is to examine the effectiveness of fuzzing to analyze and document the opaque inner workings of FPGA configuration engines, with a primary emphasis on identifying security vulnerabilities. Using only the publicly available hardware chip and dispersed documentation, we first design and implement ConFuzz, an advanced FPGA configuration engine fuzzing and rapid prototyping framework. Based on our detailed understanding of the bitstream file format, we then systematically define 3 novel key fuzzing strategies for Xilinx FPGA configuration engines. Moreover, our strategies are executed through mutational structure-aware fuzzers and incorporate various novel custom-tailored, FPGA-specific optimizations to reduce search space. Our evaluation reveals previously undocumented behavior within the configuration engine, including critical findings such as system crashes leading to unresponsive states of the whole FPGA. In addition, our investigations not only lead to the rediscovery of the recent starbleed attack but also uncover a novel unpatchable vulnerability, denoted as JustSTART (CVE-2023-20570), capable of circumventing RSA authentication for Xilinx UltraScale(+). Note that we also discuss effective countermeasures by secure FPGA settings to prevent aforementioned attacks.

Generic and Cost effective framework for Space Threat Assessment for Emerging Space Economies

Modern-day satellites can be considered mini-computers orbiting the earth, with their own operating systems, customized software, navigation and processing units, in-built memory, and other optical and communication capabilities. Gone are the days when satellites were huge in size, with systems and sub-systems taking several months to a few years to be manufactured, assembled, tested, and launched depending on the mission. A wide variety of technological developments in the past decades, including miniaturization of systems and subsystems, availability of space-qualified and commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, and the advent of application-specific integrated chips (ASICs) have paved the way for an increase in quantity and quality of space-based systems, thereby enabling a wide variety of missions even for emerging space economies. With the growing number and complexity of satellites, there have been multiple recorded instances of attacks that have happened on space and ground-based systems over the last three decades. For example, in 1986, the Galaxy I satellite uplink was disrupted by a suspicious person from Florida under the pseudonym "Captain Midnight". In 1997, computers belonging to the X-ray astrophysics section of the Goddard Space Flight Center campus were compromised. In 1998, the ROSAT X-RAY satellite co-owned by the United States and Germany was hacked. One of the satellites from the military communication system Skynet - owned and operated by the UK's Royal Air Force was hacked. As we enter the space age, it is important to note that many countries, including underdeveloped nations, utilize satellites for various earth-based and space-based applications, military recon missions, interplanetary missions, and all other types of space exploration. Given the extent of utilization, it is crucial to tackle the threats facing space-based and ground-based systems. Some developed and space-faring nations like the USA, Russia, China, the UK, etc., have counter-space capabilities at present to tackle a wide variety of threats. On the other hand, countries like India, Iran, Australia, New Zealand, and UAE, which are still new or emerging players in the new space industry, are still developing their systems to be robust enough to tackle space-based and ground-based threats. At the farther end are countries like Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Norway, etc., which are still developing their space capabilities. In this concise abstract, we present an overview of the myriad security threats encountered by both space-based and ground-based systems. Additionally, we introduce a generic and cost-effective threat assessment framework designed to evaluate these threats across diverse scenarios. This mission-agnostic framework, along with its brief methodology, serves as a foundational tool for identifying security vulnerabilities and formulating comprehensive risk mitigation strategies tailored to specific missions. In the subsequent full-length article, we delve deeper into the complexities of space security, exploring real-world examples, emerging challenges, and innovative solutions.

DATABASE VULNERABILITY TESTING MEMANFAATKAN SQLMAP PADA UBUNTU 22.04 ( STUDI KASUS : ANTARATECH.NET)

Vulnerability trial of database using SQLMap on Ubuntu 22.04 is an important process to identify security vulnerabilities in database systems running on the Ubuntu 22.04 platform. This study discusses the importance of vulnerability Uji coba in the information security space, with a focus on SQL-based database systems and the Ubuntu 22.04 platform. We describe a vulnerability Uji coba methodology that involves the use of SQLMap, a penetration tool specifically designed to identify SQL injection vulnerabilities. This research covers the basic concepts of SQL injection, the steps of implementing SQLMap on the Ubuntu 22.04 platform, and how to interpret the test results. We also discuss the benefits of using SQLMap, including an in-depth understanding of database vulnerabilities that can help organizations improve the security of their systems. The result of this research is a practical guide to performing database vulnerability testing with SQLMap on the Ubuntu 22.04 platform, thus helping security professionals and system administrators to identify and address potential vulnerabilities that could compromise data integrity and confidentiality. This research makes an important contribution in the effort to maintain the security of database systems in the challenging digital era.

Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)-Based Autonomous Penetration Testing for Web Applications.

The web application market has shown rapid growth in recent years. The expansion of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and the Internet of Things (IoT) has created new web-based communication and sensing frameworks. Current security research utilizes source code analysis and manual exploitation of web applications, to identify security vulnerabilities, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL Injection, in these emerging fields. The attack samples generated as part of web application penetration testing on sensor networks can be easily blocked, using Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). In this research work, we propose an autonomous penetration testing framework that utilizes Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). We overcome the limitations of vanilla GANs by using conditional sequence generation. This technique helps in identifying key features for XSS attacks. We trained a generative model based on attack labels and attack features. The attack features were identified using semantic tokenization, and the attack payloads were generated using conditional sequence GAN. The generated attack samples can be used to target web applications protected by WAFs in an automated manner. This model scales well on a large-scale web application platform, and it saves the significant effort invested in manual penetration testing.

Beyond Smart Homes: An In-Depth Analysis of Smart Aging Care System Security

The upward trend in the percentage of the population older than 65 has made smart aging more relevant than ever before. Growing old in a traditional assisted living facility can take a toll on the mental well-being of the elderly individual, on top of other factors like extravagant costs, potential negligence from caregivers, and a ceaseless demand for healthcare personnel. Aging in one’s own space instead of a senior residence is the desirable alternative thanks to enabling technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT facilitates connected healthcare, safety, entertainment, and social well-being of the older population. However, it suffers from a multitude of security vulnerabilities. Although researchers have investigated the security challenges of several IoT ecosystems, IoT systems in the context of smart aging care have not been well studied from a security perspective. In this article, we present an in-depth analysis of smart aging care system security issues. A smart aging care system is essentially a superset of smart homes and healthcare monitoring systems. The sheer variety of technologies at play and the amount of data generated, combined with physical vulnerabilities and a lack of technological exposure of the intended occupant group put smart aging care systems at great risk. Attacks against relatively benign smart home devices can bring serious consequences because of the context in which these devices are employed. Thus, the purpose of our study is four-fold: (i) defining the components and functionalities of a smart aging care system, (ii) identifying security vulnerabilities and outlining suitable countermeasures for them, (iii) analyzing how the attacks uniquely impact senior users’ Quality of Life (QoL), (iv) highlighting avenues for future research and how the threat landscape in smart aging care systems differ from general smart homes.

Analysis of Vulnerability Assessment Technique Implementation on Network Using OpenVas

Vulnerability Assessment is an important method for identifying and analyzing security vulnerabilities within a network system. This research aims to identify security vulnerabilities within the PT. Dutakom Wibawa Putra network using OpenVAS as a research tool. In the vulnerability analysis phase, OpenVAS is utilized to scan the PT. Dutakom Wibawa Putra network and identify existing vulnerabilities. Subsequently, an evaluation is conducted on the identified vulnerabilities, including risk assessment and necessary mitigation recommendations. The outcomes of this study provide a clear overview of the security vulnerabilities present in the PT. Dutakom Wibawa Putra network. This research using method analysis of vulnerability assessment technique implementation on network using OpenVas, several significant vulnerabilities that could impact the security of the network and systems have been identified. The findings of this analysis report can serve as a foundation for developing improved security strategies and implementing effective mitigation measures. In conclusion, this study successfully applies Vulnerability Assessment techniques to the PT. Dutakom Wibawa Putra network using OpenVAS. The identified vulnerability analysis results offer valuable insights into security weaknesses that need to be addressed. It is hoped that this research can serve as a reference for PT. Dutakom Wibawa Putra and similar organizations in enhancing their network security through the implementation of effective Vulnerability Assessment techniques.

Fuzzing Technology Based on Information Theory for Industrial Proprietary Protocol

With the rapid development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are becoming increasingly intelligent, leading to improved productivity. However, this also brings about a growing number of security vulnerabilities. As a result, efficiently identifying potential security vulnerabilities in PLCs has become a crucial research topic for security researchers. This article proposes a method for fuzzing industrial proprietary protocols to effectively identify security vulnerabilities in PLCs’ proprietary protocols. The aim of this study is to develop a protocol fuzzing approach that can uncover security vulnerabilities in PLCs’ proprietary protocols. To achieve this, the article presents a protocol structure parsing algorithm specifically designed for PLC proprietary protocols, utilizing information theory. Additionally, a fuzzing case generation algorithm based on genetic algorithms is introduced to select test cases that adhere to the format specifications of the proprietary protocol while exhibiting a high degree of mutation. The research methodology consists of several steps. Firstly, the proposed protocol structure parsing algorithm is used to analyze two known industrial protocols, namely Modbus TCP and S7Comm. The parsing results obtained from the algorithm are then compared with the correct results to validate its effectiveness. Next, the protocol structure parsing algorithm is applied to analyze the proprietary protocol formats of two PLC models. Finally, based on the analysis results, the PLCs are subjected to fuzzing. Overall, the proposed protocol fuzzing approach, incorporating the protocol structure parsing algorithm and the fuzzing case generation algorithm, successfully identifies two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the PLCs’ proprietary protocols. Notably, one of these vulnerabilities is a zero-day vulnerability, indicating that it was previously unknown and undisclosed.

Survey of Model-Based Security Testing Approaches in the Automotive Domain

Modern connected or autonomous vehicles (AVs) are highly complex cyber-physical systems. As a result of the high number of different technologies and connectivity features involved, testing these systems to identify security vulnerabilities is a big challenge. Security testing techniques, such as penetration testing, are often manual methods that are applied comparatively late in the vehicle development process. Thus, vulnerabilities are only detected late or after development, leading to higher costs and more patching effort. To reduce the amount of testing resources in general and enable early and automated testing, model-based testing methods have been established in several domains, such as information technology and the automotive domain. The transfer of model-based testing approaches to automotive security testing could help to detect vulnerabilities earlier than other, manual methods by automatically generating, executing, or simulating security tests. In this study, we review the literature on model-based test approaches in the automotive domain. First, we consider security-independent approaches to obtain an overview of applied models, formalisms, test selection criteria, and test generation techniques. In addition, we investigate, whether and how model-based approaches are applied for automotive security testing. Overall, we identified 63 publications related to model-based testing and 29 publications with regard to model-based security testing. The aim of this study is to provide an overview and direct comparison between these approaches. In this manner, the state of model-based security testing in the automotive domain, current challenges, and potential research areas are determined.

Automated Penetration Testing Framework for Smart-Home-Based IoT Devices

Security testing is fundamental to identifying security vulnerabilities on smart home-based IoT devices. For this, penetration testing is the most prominent and effective solution. However, testing the IoT manually is cumbersome and time-consuming. In addition, penetration testing requires a deep knowledge of the possible attacks and the available hacking tools. Therefore, this study emphasises building an automated penetration testing framework to discover the most common vulnerabilities in smart home-based IoT devices. This research involves exploring (studying) different IoT devices to select five devices for testing. Then, the common vulnerabilities for the five selected smart home-based IoT devices are examined, and the corresponding penetration testing tools required for the detection of these vulnerabilities are identified. The top five vulnerabilities are identified from the most common vulnerabilities, and accordingly, the corresponding tools for these vulnerabilities are discovered. These tools are combined using a script which is then implemented into a framework written in Python 3.6. The selected IoT devices are tested individually for known vulnerabilities using the proposed framework. For each vulnerability discovered in the device, the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Base score is calculated and the summation of these scores is taken to calculate the total score (for each device). In our experiment, we found that the Tp-Link Smart Bulb and the Tp-Link Smart Camera had the highest score and were the most vulnerable and the Google Home Mini had the least score and was the most secure device of all the devices. Finally, we conclude that our framework does not require technical expertise and thus can be used by common people. This will help improve the field of IoT security and ensure the security of smart homes to build a safe and secure future.

Anomaly detection-based condition monitoring

The impact of an anomaly is domain-dependent. In a dataset of network activities, an anomaly can imply an intrusion attack. Other objectives of anomaly detection are industrial damage detection, data leak prevention, identifying security vulnerabilities or military surveillance. Anomalies are observations or a sequence of observations in which the distribution deviates remarkably from the general distribution of the whole dataset. A large majority of the dataset consists of normal (healthy) data points. The anomalies form only a very small part of the dataset. Anomaly detection is the technique used to find these observations and its methods are specific to the type of data. While there is a wide spectrum of anomaly detection approaches available today, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of all the techniques. In fact, it is not clear which of the three categories of detection methods, ie statistical approaches, machine learning approaches or deep learning approaches, is more appropriate to detect anomalies in time-series data, which are mainly used in industry. A typical industrial device has multi-dimensional characteristics. It is possible to measure voltage, current, active power, vibrations, rotational speed, temperature, pressure difference, etc, on such a device. Early detection of the anomalous behaviour of industrial devices can help reduce or prevent serious damage, which could lead to significant financial loss. This paper presents a summary of the methods used to detect anomalies in condition monitoring applications.

Analysis of Code Vulnerabilities in Repositories of GitHub and Rosettacode: A comparative Study

Open-source code hosted online at programming portals is present in 99% of commercial software and is common practice among developers for rapid prototyping and cost-effective development. However, research reports the presence of vulnerabilities, which result in catastrophic security compromise, and the individual, organization, and even national secrecy are all victims of this circumstance. One of the frustrating aspects of vulnerabilities is that vulnerabilities manifest themselves in hidden ways that software developers are unaware of. One of the most critical tasks in ensuring software security is vulnerability detection, which jeopardizes core security concepts like integrity, authenticity, and availability. This study aims to explore security-related vulnerabilities in programming languages such as C, C++, and Java and present the disparities between them hosted at popular code repositories. To attain this purpose, 708 programs were examined by severity-based guidelines. A total of 1371 vulnerable codes were identified, of which 327 in C, 51 in C++, and 993 in Java. Statistical analysis also indicated a substantial difference between them, as there is ample evidence that the Kruskal-Wallis H-test p-value (.000) is below the 0.05 significance level. The Mann-Whitney Test mean rank for GitHub (Mean-rank=676.05) and Rosettacode (Mean-rank=608.64) are also different. The novelty of this article is to identify security vulnerabilities and grasp the nature severity of vulnerability in popular code repositories. This study eventually manifests a guideline for choosing a secure programming language as a successful testing technique that targets vulnerabilities more liable to breaching security.

Information Management Security Vulnerabilities in Smartphones Used by University Students: A Case Study in the Southwest of Colombia

Currently, students who use smartphones are affected by theft and information leakage, to address this problem, this research aims to identify security vulnerabilities in these devices. In addition, an application to prevent phishing and information leakage was implemented. Effectiveness and performance tests were carried out to identify vulnerabilities and to alert users about them. The threats identified in Android smartphones used by university students in the southwest of Colombia were based on various techniques (phishing, DNS poisoning, identity theft, Man in the middle, foot-printing, spyware). To reach this result, we defined the problem, then we made a literature review, after that we defined the study population, methods, and instruments; finally, we collected the information and analyzed the results. An application was launched to show the security vulnerabilities of malicious software installation, which extracts information from student’s devices and makes the security of our mobile phones a priority nowadays; and to achieve greater security on Android smartphones. However, it is essential to be aware of the importance of self-care.

Analisis Keamanan Sistem Informasi Akademik (SIAKAD) Universitas XYZ Menggunakan Metode Vulnerability Assessment


 
 
 The use of academic information systems (siakad) has become mandatory for universities in providing user convenience in online academic administrative activities. However, sometimes college siakad has security holes that irresponsible people can take advantage of by hacking. This study aims to identify security vulnerabilities at XYZ Siakad University.
 The method used in this study is a vulnerability assessment method. A university syakad will conduct an initial vulnerability assessment by doing footprinting to get information related to XYZ syakad after that a vulnerability scan is carried out using vulnerability assessment tools to identify vulnerabilities and the level of risk found.
 Based on the vulnerability of the XYZ university's vulnerabilities, it is quite good, with a high risk level of 1, a medium risk level of 6 and a low risk level of 14. Researchers provide recommendations for improvements related to the findings of security holes in XYZ university Siakad from XSS (Cross Site Scripting) attacks, Clickjacking, Brute Force, Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) and Sniffing.
 
 

Cyber Security in “ATM Surveillance Tracker and Server” System

The aim of this manuscript is to present the status of cyber security challenges in the surveillance data processing system “ARTAS” . The cyber security is a rising concern of the current ATC systems. Moreover, it is mandated by European Union law as well as the national law. Therefore, EUROCONTROL as the supplier of the ARTAS application had conducted a comprehensive security assessment. The goal was to identify security vulnerabilities of the systems. For this purpose, EUROCONTROL’s security experts carried out the “grey-box” type of penetration testing. Numerous weaknesses found exists because of the development and design decisions taken in early 90's, when ARTAS system was created. Presently, all weakness are mitigated by the means that ARTAS systems shall be operated in isolated and restricted environment. Considering the continuing advanced persistent threads this is not sufficient anymore and the next version of ARTAS system is addressing the most critical issues.

A multi-flow information flow tracking approach for proving quantitative hardware security properties

Information Flow Tracking (IFT) is an established formal method for proving security properties related to confidentiality, integrity, and isolation. It has seen promise in identifying security vulnerabilities resulting from design flaws, timing channels, and hardware Trojans for secure hardware design. However, existing IFT methods tend to take a qualitative approach and only enforce binary security properties, requiring strict non-interference for the properties to hold while real systems usually allow a small amount of information flows to enable desirable interactions. Consequently, existing methods are inadequate for reasoning about quantitative security properties or measuring the security of a design in order to assess the severity of a security vulnerability. In this work, we propose two multi-flow solutions - multiple verifications for replicating existing IFT model and multi-flow IFT method. The proposed multi-flow IFT method provides more insight into simultaneous information flow behaviors and allows for proof of quantitative information flow security properties, such as diffusion, randomization, and boundaries on the amount of simultaneous information flows. Experimental results show that our method can be used to prove a new type of information flow security property with verification performance benefits.

Identifying Security Vulnerabilities in Electricity Market Operations Induced by Weakly Detectable Network Parameter Errors

In this article, a new security vulnerability in electricity market operations is identified. It involves certain parameters in the network model database whose errors, by nature, are difficult to detect and identify. These errors can either occur due to unintentional reasons or be maliciously introduced by cyber-adversaries. It is shown that by impacting the injection shift factors and transmission line congestion patterns, these errors may exert biases on locational marginal prices (LMPs), and thus impact the revenues received by the holders of financial transmission rights (FTRs). A method is then developed for identifying the network parameters whose errors are difficult to detect and may have severe impacts on the LMPs and FTR revenues. Simulation results in the IEEE 57-bus system are presented to illustrate and verify the analysis and the proposed method. The proposed framework can be used to conduct cyber-vulnerability assessment for power system model databases.

Són humanes les tecnologies? Cap a una fonamentació de gènere ètic-responsable de la utilització massiva de xarxes socials.

The mass use of technologies, especially, in terms of participation in social networks and mobile apps seems oriented to providing an extension of humanity to digital tools that they do not really possess. Information and communication technologies pose challenges and threats to the public, particularly, due to the sometimes unreflecting and irresponsible use that the public make of them. Their advanced development provide so many utilities and recreative functions that they have become familiar, everyday instruments. Technologies seem to have acquired humanity, but what differentiates them from humans is their lack of ethical responsibility. Gender structures and inequalities remain wherever we do not make a conscious and purposive effort to eliminate them; in online social activity one often encounters diverse situations of gender-, class- or race-related violence. Digital humanities must urgently address the dimension of gender from an intersectional approach to be able to promote greater equality in social relationships and to reduce discrimination in the social networks. The purpose is to create safe spaces (that is, resources for population who can assess the impact, adopt a critical perspective to identify security vulnerabilities, situations of discrimination, and so on) and take responsibility by adopting safety codes for themselves and for others.

Current Status of Cyber Security in Artas Surveeillance Data Processing System

The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive status of cyber security challenges in ARTAS surveillance data processing system. The cyber security is a major concern of current Air Traffic Systems. It is mandated by European Union as well as national law. Therefore, EUROCONTROL as the provider the ARTAS application conducted a comprehensive security assessment is to identify security vulnerabilities of the systems. For this purpose, a grey-box penetration testing was conducted by EUROCONTROL’s security experts. The numerous findings are currently mitigated by the fact that ARTAS systems should be isolated and restricted in a secure architecture. The next version of ARTAS application is addressing the most critical issues.

Security assessment framework for educational ERP systems

The educational ERP systems have vulnerabilities at the different layers such as version-specific vulnerabilities, configuration level vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities of the underlying infrastructure. This research has identified security vulnerabilities in an educational ERP system with the help of automated tools; penetration testing tool and public vulnerability repositories (CVE, CCE) at all layers. The identified vulnerabilities are analyzed for any false positives and then clustered with mitigation techniques, available publicly in security vulnerability solution repository like CCE and CWE. These mitigation techniques are mapped over reported vulnerabilities using mapping algorithms. Security vulnerabilities are then prioritized based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). Finally, open standards-based vulnerability mitigation recommendations are discussed.