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Description
Most existing security decisions for both defending and attacking are made based on some deterministic approaches that only give binary answers. Even though these approaches can achieve low false positive rate for decision making, they have high false negative rates due to the lack of accommodations to new attack methods and defense techniques. In this dissertation, I study how to discover and use patterns with uncertainty and randomness to counter security challenges. By extracting and modeling patterns in security events, I am able to handle previously unknown security events with quantified confidence, rather than simply making binary decisions. In particular, I cope with the following four real-world security challenges by modeling and analyzing with pattern-based approaches: 1) How to detect and attribute previously unknown shellcode? I propose instruction sequence abstraction that extracts coarse-grained patterns from an instruction sequence and use Markov chain-based model and support vector machines to detect and attribute shellcode; 2) How to safely mitigate routing attacks in mobile ad hoc networks? I identify routing table change patterns caused by attacks, propose an extended Dempster-Shafer theory to measure the risk of such changes, and use a risk-aware response mechanism to mitigate routing attacks; 3) How to model, understand, and guess human-chosen picture passwords? I analyze collected human-chosen picture passwords, propose selection function that models patterns in password selection, and design two algorithms to optimize password guessing paths; and 4) How to identify influential figures and events in underground social networks? I analyze collected underground social network data, identify user interaction patterns, and propose a suite of measures for systematically discovering and mining adversarial evidence. By solving these four problems, I demonstrate that discovering and using patterns could help deal with challenges in computer security, network security, human-computer interaction security, and social network security.
ContributorsZhao, Ziming (Author) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Yau, Stephen S. (Committee member) / Huang, Dijiang (Committee member) / Santanam, Raghu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The Web is one of the most exciting and dynamic areas of development in today’s technology. However, with such activity, innovation, and ubiquity have come a set of new challenges for digital forensic examiners, making their jobs even more difficult. For examiners to become as effective with evidence from the Web as they currently are with more traditional evidence, they need (1) methods that guide them to know how to approach this new type of evidence and (2) tools that accommodate web environments’ unique characteristics.
In this dissertation, I present my research to alleviate the difficulties forensic examiners currently face with respect to evidence originating from web environments. First, I introduce a framework for web environment forensics, which elaborates on and addresses the key challenges examiners face and outlines a method for how to approach web-based evidence. Next, I describe my work to identify extensions installed on encrypted web thin clients using only a sound understanding of these systems’ inner workings and the metadata of the encrypted files. Finally, I discuss my approach to reconstructing the timeline of events on encrypted web thin clients by using service provider APIs as a proxy for directly analyzing the device. In each of these research areas, I also introduce structured formats that I customized to accommodate the unique features of the evidence sources while also facilitating tool interoperability and information sharing.
In this dissertation, I present my research to alleviate the difficulties forensic examiners currently face with respect to evidence originating from web environments. First, I introduce a framework for web environment forensics, which elaborates on and addresses the key challenges examiners face and outlines a method for how to approach web-based evidence. Next, I describe my work to identify extensions installed on encrypted web thin clients using only a sound understanding of these systems’ inner workings and the metadata of the encrypted files. Finally, I discuss my approach to reconstructing the timeline of events on encrypted web thin clients by using service provider APIs as a proxy for directly analyzing the device. In each of these research areas, I also introduce structured formats that I customized to accommodate the unique features of the evidence sources while also facilitating tool interoperability and information sharing.
ContributorsMabey, Michael Kent (Author) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Doupe, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Yau, Stephen S. (Committee member) / Lee, Joohyung (Committee member) / Zhao, Ziming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Hardware-Assisted Security (HAS) is an emerging technology that addresses the shortcomings of software-based virtualized environment. There are two major weaknesses of software-based virtualization that HAS attempts to address - performance overhead and security issues. Performance overhead caused by software-based virtualization is due to the use of additional software layer (i.e., hypervisor). Since the performance is highly related to efficiency of processing data and providing services, reducing performance overhead is one of the major concerns in data centers and enterprise networks. Software-based virtualization also imposes additional security issues in the virtualized environments. To resolve those issues, HAS is developed to offload security functions from application layer to a dedicated hardware, thereby achieving almost bare-metal performance and enhanced security. As a result, HAS gained
more popularity and the number of studies regarding efficiency of the technology is increasing.
However, there exists no attempt to our knowledge that provides a generic test mechanism that is universally applicable to all HAS devices. Preparing such a testbed for each specific HAS device is a time-consuming and costly task for hardware manufacturers and network administrators. Therefore, we try to address the demands of hardware vendors and researchers for a generic testbed that can evaluate both performance and security functions of the HAS-enabled systems.
In this thesis, the HAS device evaluation framework (HEF) is defined for hardware vendors, network administrators, and researchers to measure performance of the system with HAS devices. HEF provides a generic test environments for a given HAS device by providing generic test metrics and evaluation mechanisms. HEF is also designed to take user-defined test metrics and test cases to support various hardware. The framework performs the entire process in an automated fashion, and thus it requires no user intervention. Finally, the efficacy of HEF is demonstrated by performing a case study using Intel QuickAssist Technology (QAT) adapter, which is a dedicated PCI express device for cryptographic tasks.
more popularity and the number of studies regarding efficiency of the technology is increasing.
However, there exists no attempt to our knowledge that provides a generic test mechanism that is universally applicable to all HAS devices. Preparing such a testbed for each specific HAS device is a time-consuming and costly task for hardware manufacturers and network administrators. Therefore, we try to address the demands of hardware vendors and researchers for a generic testbed that can evaluate both performance and security functions of the HAS-enabled systems.
In this thesis, the HAS device evaluation framework (HEF) is defined for hardware vendors, network administrators, and researchers to measure performance of the system with HAS devices. HEF provides a generic test environments for a given HAS device by providing generic test metrics and evaluation mechanisms. HEF is also designed to take user-defined test metrics and test cases to support various hardware. The framework performs the entire process in an automated fashion, and thus it requires no user intervention. Finally, the efficacy of HEF is demonstrated by performing a case study using Intel QuickAssist Technology (QAT) adapter, which is a dedicated PCI express device for cryptographic tasks.
ContributorsKyung, Sukwha (Author) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Doupe, Adam (Committee member) / Zhao, Ziming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Web applications are ubiquitous. Accessible from almost anywhere, web applications support multiple platforms and can be easily customized. Most people interact with web applications daily for social media, communication, research, purchases, etc. Node.js has gained popularity as a programming language for web applications. A server-side JavaScript implementation, Node.js, allows both the front-end and back-end to be coded in JavaScript. Node.js contains many features such as dynamic inclusion of other modules using a built-in function named require which dynamically locates and loads code.
To be effective, web applications must perform actions quickly while avoiding unexpected interruptions. However, dynamically linked libraries can cause delays and thus downtime, because dynamically linked code must load multiple files, often from disk. As loading is one of the slowest operations a computer performs, seeking from disk can have a negative impact on performance which causes the server to feel less responsive for users. Dynamically linked code can also break when the underlying library is updated. Normally, when trying to update a server, developers will use test servers. However, if the developer accidentally updates a library in a dynamically linked system, it may be incompatible with another portion of the program.
Statically linking code makes it more reliable and faster (to load) than dynamically linking code. The static linking process varies by programming language. Therefore, different static linkers need to be developed for different languages. This thesis describes the creation of a static linker, called FrozenNode, for the popular back-end web application language, Node.js. FrozenNode resolves Node.js applications into a single file that does not rely on dynamic libraries. FrozenNode was built on top of Closure Compiler to accurately process JavaScript. We found that the resolved application was faster and self-contained yielding significant advantages over the dynamically loaded application. Furthermore, both had the same output.
Vulnerabilities in web applications can be found using static analysis tools, however static analysis tools must reason about dynamically linked application. FrozenNode can be used to statically link a Node.js application before being used by a JavaScript static analysis tool.
To be effective, web applications must perform actions quickly while avoiding unexpected interruptions. However, dynamically linked libraries can cause delays and thus downtime, because dynamically linked code must load multiple files, often from disk. As loading is one of the slowest operations a computer performs, seeking from disk can have a negative impact on performance which causes the server to feel less responsive for users. Dynamically linked code can also break when the underlying library is updated. Normally, when trying to update a server, developers will use test servers. However, if the developer accidentally updates a library in a dynamically linked system, it may be incompatible with another portion of the program.
Statically linking code makes it more reliable and faster (to load) than dynamically linking code. The static linking process varies by programming language. Therefore, different static linkers need to be developed for different languages. This thesis describes the creation of a static linker, called FrozenNode, for the popular back-end web application language, Node.js. FrozenNode resolves Node.js applications into a single file that does not rely on dynamic libraries. FrozenNode was built on top of Closure Compiler to accurately process JavaScript. We found that the resolved application was faster and self-contained yielding significant advantages over the dynamically loaded application. Furthermore, both had the same output.
Vulnerabilities in web applications can be found using static analysis tools, however static analysis tools must reason about dynamically linked application. FrozenNode can be used to statically link a Node.js application before being used by a JavaScript static analysis tool.
ContributorsHutchins, James (Author) / Doupe, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Shoshitaishvili, Yan (Committee member) / Zhao, Ziming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The telephone network is used by almost every person in the modern world. With the rise of Internet access to the PSTN, the telephone network today is rife with telephone spam and scams. Spam calls are significant annoyances for telephone users, unlike email spam, spam calls demand immediate attention. They are not only significant annoyances but also result in significant financial losses in the economy. According to complaint data from the FTC, complaints on illegal calls have made record numbers in recent years. Americans lose billions to fraud due to malicious telephone communication, despite various efforts to subdue telephone spam, scam, and robocalls.
In this dissertation, a study of what causes the users to fall victim to telephone scams is presented, and it demonstrates that impersonation is at the heart of the problem. Most solutions today primarily rely on gathering offending caller IDs, however, they do not work effectively when the caller ID has been spoofed. Due to a lack of authentication in the PSTN caller ID transmission scheme, fraudsters can manipulate the caller ID to impersonate a trusted entity and further a variety of scams. To provide a solution to this fundamental problem, a novel architecture and method to authenticate the transmission of the caller ID is proposed. The solution enables the possibility of a security indicator which can provide an early warning to help users stay vigilant against telephone impersonation scams, as well as provide a foundation for existing and future defenses to stop unwanted telephone communication based on the caller ID information.
In this dissertation, a study of what causes the users to fall victim to telephone scams is presented, and it demonstrates that impersonation is at the heart of the problem. Most solutions today primarily rely on gathering offending caller IDs, however, they do not work effectively when the caller ID has been spoofed. Due to a lack of authentication in the PSTN caller ID transmission scheme, fraudsters can manipulate the caller ID to impersonate a trusted entity and further a variety of scams. To provide a solution to this fundamental problem, a novel architecture and method to authenticate the transmission of the caller ID is proposed. The solution enables the possibility of a security indicator which can provide an early warning to help users stay vigilant against telephone impersonation scams, as well as provide a foundation for existing and future defenses to stop unwanted telephone communication based on the caller ID information.
ContributorsTu, Huahong (Author) / Doupe, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Huang, Dijiang (Committee member) / Zhang, Yanchao (Committee member) / Zhao, Ziming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
With the rise of the Internet of Things, embedded systems have become an integral part of life and can be found almost anywhere. Their prevalence and increased interconnectivity has made them a prime target for malicious attacks. Today, the vast majority of embedded devices are powered by ARM processors. To protect their processors from attacks, ARM introduced a hardware security extension known as TrustZone. It provides an isolated execution environment within the embedded device in which to deploy various memory integrity and malware detection tools.
Even though Secure World can monitor the Normal World, attackers can attempt to bypass the security measures to retain control of a compromised system. CacheKit is a new type of rootkit that exploits such a vulnerability in the ARM architecture to hide in Normal World cache from memory introspection tools running in Secure World by exploiting cache locking mechanisms. If left unchecked, ARM processors that provide hardware assisted cache locking for performance and time-critical applications in real-time and embedded systems would be completely vulnerable to this undetectable and untraceable attack. Therefore, a new approach is needed to ensure the correct use of such mechanisms and prevent malicious code from being hidden in the cache.
CacheLight is a lightweight approach that leverages the TrustZone and Virtualization extensions of the ARM architecture to allow the system to continue to securely provide these hardware facilities to users while preventing attackers from exploiting them. CacheLight restricts the ability to lock the cache to the Secure World of the processor such that the Normal World can still request certain memory to be locked into the cache by the secure operating system (OS) through a Secure Monitor Call (SMC). This grants the secure OS the power to verify and validate the information that will be locked in the requested cache way thereby ensuring that any data that remains in the cache will not be inconsistent with what exists in main memory for inspection. Malicious attempts to hide data can be prevented and recovered for analysis while legitimate requests can still generate valid entries in the cache.
Even though Secure World can monitor the Normal World, attackers can attempt to bypass the security measures to retain control of a compromised system. CacheKit is a new type of rootkit that exploits such a vulnerability in the ARM architecture to hide in Normal World cache from memory introspection tools running in Secure World by exploiting cache locking mechanisms. If left unchecked, ARM processors that provide hardware assisted cache locking for performance and time-critical applications in real-time and embedded systems would be completely vulnerable to this undetectable and untraceable attack. Therefore, a new approach is needed to ensure the correct use of such mechanisms and prevent malicious code from being hidden in the cache.
CacheLight is a lightweight approach that leverages the TrustZone and Virtualization extensions of the ARM architecture to allow the system to continue to securely provide these hardware facilities to users while preventing attackers from exploiting them. CacheLight restricts the ability to lock the cache to the Secure World of the processor such that the Normal World can still request certain memory to be locked into the cache by the secure operating system (OS) through a Secure Monitor Call (SMC). This grants the secure OS the power to verify and validate the information that will be locked in the requested cache way thereby ensuring that any data that remains in the cache will not be inconsistent with what exists in main memory for inspection. Malicious attempts to hide data can be prevented and recovered for analysis while legitimate requests can still generate valid entries in the cache.
ContributorsGutierrez, Mauricio (Author) / Zhao, Ziming (Thesis advisor) / Doupe, Adam (Committee member) / Shoshitaishvili, Yan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
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.
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.
ContributorsDixit, Vaibhav Hemant (Author) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Doupe, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Shoshitaishvili, Yan (Committee member) / Zhao, Ziming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This thesis will examine the recruitment process of educated millennials coming from four-year institutions to their first job out of college. When referring to millennials throughout my research, I am specifically focusing on current college graduates in order to better relate to my own experiences as a soon-to-be-graduate seeking a job. I will examine the various recruiting techniques, i.e. channels to connect with graduates, and the hiring and interview process as a whole. This thesis will also discuss the challenges and differences of recruiting millennials versus other generations. It will also discuss the latest trends in college and early talent recruiting. In order to do this, I conducted a number of in-depth interviews with recruiters and hiring managers from various companies that recruit heavily from Arizona State University (ASU), in order to determine what these companies have done to be successful among young college graduates. I aimed to identify the specific techniques that these companies use to connect with recent college graduates, what skills these firms are looking for, and what the hiring process looks like for new millennial employees. I also conducted an extensive online literature search about recruiting educated millennials in the workforce, and I used that information as a basis to form my interview questions. The interviews were meant to confirm or deny that research, but the interviewees also revealed many new trends and insights. I hope that this information will be beneficial not only to college seniors seeking first-time employment, but also to other companies who feel that they are struggling to capture young talent.
ContributorsCapra, Alexandria Luccia (Author) / Kalika, Dale (Thesis director) / Eaton, Kathryn (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
ASU's international student population has been growing exponentially in the last few years. Specifically, the fastest growing group has been international students from China. However, many of these students are arriving with inaccurate expectations of life at an American university. Furthermore, prospective students in China that have a desire to attend school in the U.S. are struggling to find a university that is affordable and respected. There is a huge opportunity for ASU to reach this market of students and increase their enrollment of international Chinese students. Our project aimed to create advertisements of ASU that target international Chinese students and their parents. The purpose of our project is to provide inspiration that ASU can utilize to create a professional marketing campaign to target this population of potential students.
ContributorsKagiyama, Kristen (Co-author) / Le, Alethea (Co-author) / Chien, Hsui Fen (Thesis director) / Chau, Angie (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This project seeks to investigate the ways in which the W.P. Carey School of Business, at Arizona State University, can improve student retention and engagement efforts. The analysis is being completed through an audit of the business school's current efforts towards student engagement, an examination of the internal and external environments of business schools across the nation, and a review of scholarly data/research on student retention risk factors and methods for improving engagement. The study highlights what exactly contributes to the success of the W.P. Carey School of Business, concluding with recommendations for how its engagement and retention efforts can be further improved to continue to serve students at a nationally ranked level.
ContributorsStinger, Rio W. (Author) / Hillman, Amy (Thesis director) / Mader, Michael (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05