scholarly journals INTEGRATION OF HARDWARE SECURITY MODULES INTO A DEEPLY EMBEDDED TLS STACK

2016 ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Oliver Kehret ◽  
Andreas Walz ◽  
Axel Sikora
Keyword(s):  
Secure Communication ◽  
Hardware Security ◽  
Transport Layer ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Embedded Devices ◽  
Secure Hardware ◽  
Communication Links ◽  
Layer 4 ◽  
The Internet Of Things ◽  
Hardware Security Modules

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is a well-established standard for securing communication over insecure communication links, offering layer-4 VPN functionality. In the classical Internet TLS is widely used. With the advances of the Internet of Things (IoT) there is an increasing need to secure communication on resource-constrained embedded devices. On these devices, computation of complex cryptographic algorithms is difficult. Additionally, sensor nodes are physically exposed to attackers. Cryptographic acceleration and secure hardware security modules (HSMs) are possible solutions to these challenges. The usage of specialized cryptographic modules for TLS is not a new phenomenon. However, there are still few hardware security modules suitable for the use on microcontrollers in sensor networks. We therefore present an overview of HSM and TLS solutions along with sample implementations and share some recommendations how to combine both.

Attacks, Vulnerabilities, and Their Countermeasures in Wireless Sensor Networks

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Jaspher Willsie Kathrine ◽  
C. Willson Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Wireless Sensor Networks ◽  
Sensor Networks ◽  
Secure Communication ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Wireless Sensor ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Minimal Cost ◽  
Wireless Sensor Nodes ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Wireless sensor network (WSN) comprises sensor nodes that have the capability to sense and compute. Due to their availability and minimal cost compared to traditional networks, WSN is used broadly. The need for sensor networks increases quickly as they are more likely to experience security attacks. There are many attacks and vulnerabilities in WSN. The sensor nodes have issues like limited resources of memory and power and undependable communication medium, which is further complicated in unattended environments, secure communication, and data transmission issues. Due to the complexity in establishing and maintaining the wireless sensor networks, the traditional security solutions if implemented will prove to be inefficient for the dynamic nature of the wireless sensor networks. Since recent times, the advance of smart cities and everything smart, wireless sensor nodes have become an integral part of the internet of things and their related paradigms. This chapter discusses the known attacks, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures existing in wireless sensor networks.

Security in Smart Healthcare System: A Comprehensive Survey

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
P. Jeyadurga ◽  
S. Ebenezer Juliet ◽  
I. Joshua Selwyn ◽  
P. Sivanisha
Keyword(s):  
Secure Communication ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Internet Security ◽  
Security Risk ◽  
System A ◽  
Smart Healthcare ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Healthcare Monitoring ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The Internet of things (IoT) is one of the emerging technologies that brought revolution in many application domains such as smart cities, smart retails, healthcare monitoring and so on. As the physical objects are connected via internet, security risk may arise. This paper analyses the existing technologies and protocols that are designed by different authors to ensure the secure communication over internet. It additionally focuses on the advancement in healthcare systems while deploying IoT services.

scholarly journals Clique Size in Sensor Networks with Key Pre-Distribution Based on Transversal Design

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 345-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dibyendu Chakrabarti ◽  
Subhamoy Maitra ◽  
Bimal Roy
Keyword(s):  
Sensor Networks ◽  
Distributed Computing ◽  
Secure Communication ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Transversal Design ◽  
Secret Key ◽  
Distributed Sensor Networks ◽  
Distributed Sensor

Key pre-distribution is an important area of research in Distributed Sensor Networks (DSN). Two sensor nodes are considered connected for secure communication if they share one or more common secret key(s). It is important to analyse the largest subset of nodes in a DSN where each node is connected to every other node in that subset (i.e., the largest clique). This parameter (largest clique size) is important in terms of resiliency and capability towards efficient distributed computing in a DSN. In this paper, we concentrate on the schemes where the key pre-distribution strategies are based on transversal design and study the largest clique sizes. We show that merging of blocks to construct a node provides larger clique sizes than considering a block itself as a node in a transversal design.

A large-scale analysis of HTTPS deployments: Challenges, solutions, and recommendations

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Qinwen Hu ◽  
Muhammad Rizwan Asghar ◽  
Nevil Brownlee
Keyword(s):  
Secure Communication ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Transport Layer ◽  
Security Level ◽  
Secure Socket Layer ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Large Scale Analysis ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Encrypted Communication ◽  
Specific Implementation

HTTPS refers to an application-specific implementation that runs HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on top of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). HTTPS is used to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of web servers and clients, for different purposes such as online banking and e-commerce. However, many HTTPS vulnerabilities have been disclosed in recent years. Although many studies have pointed out that these vulnerabilities can lead to serious consequences, domain administrators seem to ignore them. In this study, we evaluate the HTTPS security level of Alexa’s top 1 million domains from two perspectives. First, we explore which popular sites are still affected by those well-known security issues. Our results show that less than 0.1% of HTTPS-enabled servers in the measured domains are still vulnerable to known attacks including Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4), Compression Ratio Info-Leak Mass Exploitation (CRIME), Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE), Factoring RSA Export Keys (FREAK), Logjam, and Decrypting Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) using Obsolete and Weakened eNcryption (DROWN). Second, we assess the security level of the digital certificates used by each measured HTTPS domain. Our results highlight that less than 0.52% domains use the expired certificate, 0.42% HTTPS certificates contain different hostnames, and 2.59% HTTPS domains use a self-signed certificate. The domains we investigate in our study cover 5 regions (including ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, LACNIC, and AFRINIC) and 61 different categories such as online shopping websites, banking websites, educational websites, and government websites. Although our results show that the problem still exists, we find that changes have been taking place when HTTPS vulnerabilities were discovered. Through this three-year study, we found that more attention has been paid to the use and configuration of HTTPS. For example, more and more domains begin to enable the HTTPS protocol to ensure a secure communication channel between users and websites. From the first measurement, we observed that many domains are still using TLS 1.0 and 1.1, SSL 2.0, and SSL 3.0 protocols to support user clients that use outdated systems. As the previous studies revealed security risks of using these protocols, in the subsequent studies, we found that the majority of domains updated their TLS protocol on time. Our 2020 results suggest that most HTTPS domains use the TLS 1.2 protocol and show that some HTTPS domains are still vulnerable to the existing known attacks. As academics and industry professionals continue to disclose attacks against HTTPS and recommend the secure configuration of HTTPS, we found that the number of vulnerable domain is gradually decreasing every year.

Automatic Vulnerability Detection in Embedded Devices and Firmware

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Abdullah Qasem ◽  
Paria Shirani ◽  
Mourad Debbabi ◽  
Lingyu Wang ◽  
Bernard Lebel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Symbolic Execution ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Embedded Devices ◽  
Security Vulnerabilities ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Hybrid Approaches ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Internet Of Things

In the era of the internet of things (IoT), software-enabled inter-connected devices are of paramount importance. The embedded systems are very frequently used in both security and privacy-sensitive applications. However, the underlying software (a.k.a. firmware) very often suffers from a wide range of security vulnerabilities, mainly due to their outdated systems or reusing existing vulnerable libraries; which is evident by the surprising rise in the number of attacks against embedded systems. Therefore, to protect those embedded systems, detecting the presence of vulnerabilities in the large pool of embedded devices and their firmware plays a vital role. To this end, there exist several approaches to identify and trigger potential vulnerabilities within deployed embedded systems firmware. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art proposals, which detect vulnerabilities in embedded systems and firmware images by employing various analysis techniques, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, symbolic execution, and hybrid approaches. Furthermore, we perform both quantitative and qualitative comparisons among the surveyed approaches. Moreover, we devise taxonomies based on the applications of those approaches, the features used in the literature, and the type of the analysis. Finally, we identify the unresolved challenges and discuss possible future directions in this field of research.

scholarly journals Efficient Key Agreement Algorithm for Wireless Body Area Networks Using Reusable ECG-Based Features

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 404
Author(s):  
Yasmeen Al-Saeed ◽  
Eman Eldaydamony ◽  
Ahmed Atwan ◽  
Mohammed Elmogy ◽  
Osama Ouda
Keyword(s):  
Secure Communication ◽  
Key Agreement ◽  
Body Area Networks ◽  
Wireless Body Area Networks ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Body Area ◽  
Key Agreement Protocol

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are increasingly employed in different medical applications, such as remote health monitoring, early detection of medical conditions, and computer-assisted rehabilitation. A WBAN connects a number of sensor nodes implanted in and/or fixed on the human body for monitoring his/her physiological characteristics. Although medical healthcare systems could significantly benefit from the advancement of WBAN technology, collecting and transmitting private physiological data in such an open environment raises serious security and privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a novel key-agreement protocol to secure communications among sensor nodes of WBANs. The proposed protocol is based on measuring and verifying common physiological features at both sender and recipient sensors prior to communicating. Unlike existing protocols, the proposed protocol enables communicating sensors to use their previous session pre-knowledge for secure communication within a specific period of time. This will reduce the time required for establishing the shared key as well as avoid retransmitting extracted features in the medium and hence thwarting eavesdropping attacks while maintaining randomness of the key. Experimental results illustrate the superiority of the proposed key agreement protocol in terms of both feature extraction and key agreement phases with an accuracy of 99.50% and an error rate of 0.005%. The efficacy of the proposed protocol with respect to energy and memory utilization is demonstrated compared with existing key agreement protocols.

scholarly journals Development of an IoT System for Environmental Monitoring: Software

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Secker
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Embedded Devices ◽  
Data Loggers ◽  
Environmental Monitoring System ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
High Level ◽  
Monitoring Software ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Use of the Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to be the next big advancement in environmental monitoring. We present the high-level software side of a proof-of-concept that demonstrates an end-to-end environmental monitoring system,<br><div>replacing Greater Wellington Regional Council’s expensive data loggers with low-cost, IoT centric embedded devices, and it’s supporting cloud platform. The proof-of-concept includes a Micropython-based software stack running on an ESP32 microcontroller. The device software includes a built-in webserver that hosts a responsive Web App for configuration of the device. Telemetry data is sent over Vodafone’s NB-IoT network and stored in Azure IoT Central, where it can be visualised and exported.</div><br>While future development is required for a production-ready system, the proof-of-concept justifies the use of modern IoT technologies for environmental monitoring. The open source nature of the project means that the knowledge gained can be re-used and modified to suit the use-cases for other organisations.

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