Threats and Defenses in SDN Control Plane

Network Management is a critical process for an enterprise to configure and monitor the network devices using cost effective methods. It is imperative for it to be robust and free from adversarial or accidental security flaws. With the advent of cloud computing and increasing demands for centralized network control, conventional management protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) appear inadequate and newer techniques like Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA) design and Network Configuration (NETCONF) have been invented. However, unlike SNMP which underwent improvements concentrating on security, the new data management and storage techniques have not been scrutinized for the inherent security flaws.

In this thesis, I identify several vulnerabilities in the widely used critical infrastructures which leverage the NMDA design. Software Defined Networking (SDN), a proponent of NMDA, heavily relies on its datastores to program and manage the network. I base my research on the security challenges put forth by the existing datastore’s design as implemented by the SDN controllers. The vulnerabilities identified in this work have a direct impact on the controllers like OpenDayLight, Open Network Operating System and their proprietary implementations (by CISCO, Ericsson, RedHat, Brocade, Juniper, etc). Using the threat detection methodology, I demonstrate how the NMDA-based implementations are vulnerable to attacks which compromise availability, integrity, and confidentiality of the network. I finally propose defense measures to address the security threats in the existing design and discuss the challenges faced while employing these countermeasures.