Computer Engineering Commons^™

Deepfakes: Ai Technology Of The Future, Hosanna Root

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

Deepfakes technology’s danger stems from its ability to create realistic but fake synthesized media that people often identify as something that is real. With this powerful technology in the wrong hands, deepfakes can cause devastating havoc through information warfare, election campaign disruptions, and more, creating distrust in society. Disinformation is already rampant today, even without wide deployments of deepfakes, which is concerning given the fact that deepfakes’ nefarious full potentials are yet to be reached.

Security Issues With Network Connected Scada Systems, Chad Holm

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The use of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems has become common place and are being used in several different industries. These have evolved as the technology has progressed. The use of Internet of Things (IOT) devices makes for less human intervention to run daily operations in these industries. This can also allow hackers to gain access to these devices due to security holes that are overlooked. There have several different ways that have been exploited on SCADA networks and the goal is to recognize and secure them so hackers cannot gain access to them.

Corporate Cybersecurity In The Context Of M&A Transactions, Cameron Beck

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The rapid rise of digital devices has unlocked a new dimension of innovation and prosperity in the 21st century. Computers are now an integrated and ubiquitous part of our global culture. You would be hard-pressed to walk into any given room without several computer chips humming inaudibly inside the machines that facilitate our modern world. Even lightbulbs and doorbells are connected to the Internet, capturing information from the world around them and sending that information to the Cloud. The Internet expands access to communication, international marketplaces, entertainment, professional resources, and nearly every book in the world.

Examining Cooperative System Responses Against Grid Integrity Attacks, Alexander D. Parady

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Smart grid technologies are integral to society’s transition to sustainable energy sources, but they do not come without a cost. As the energy sector shifts away from a century’s reliance on fossil fuels and centralized generation, technology that actively monitors and controls every aspect of the power infrastructure has been widely adopted, resulting in a plethora of new vulnerabilities that have already wreaked havoc on critical infrastructure. Integrity attacks that feedback false data through industrial control systems, which result in possible catastrophic overcorrections and ensuing failures, have plagued grid infrastructure over the past several years. This threat is now at …

Modeling Iot Solutions: A Lack Of Iot Device Security, And User Education, Benjamin Newlin

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The Internet of Things, more commonly known as IoT devices, is an ever growing topic, both in the marketplace and in cyber security. While new devices are released into the public every year, a lack of standardized security concepts is also growing ever so clear. By having a model or standard for IoT devices and manufacturers to follow, the customer-base of these devices will have an easier time identifying trustworthy devices as well as how to secure their own devices.

C2 Microservices Api: Ch4rl3sch4l3m4gn3, Thai H. Nguyễn

School of Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Publications

In the 21^st century, cyber-based attackers such as advance persistent threats are leveraging bots in the form of botnets to conduct a plethora of cyber-attacks. While there are several social engineering techniques used to get targets to unknowingly download these bots, it is the command-and-control techniques advance persistent threats use to control their bots that is of critical interest to the author. In this research paper, the author aims to develop a command-and-control microservice application programming interface infrastructure to facilitate botnet command-and-control attack simulations. To achieve this the author will develop a simple bot skeletal framework, utilize the latest …

Evaluating Similarity Of Cross-Architecture Basic Blocks, Elijah L. Meyer

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Vulnerabilities in source code can be compiled for multiple processor architectures and make their way into several different devices. Security researchers frequently have no way to obtain this source code to analyze for vulnerabilities. Therefore, the ability to effectively analyze binary code is essential. Similarity detection is one facet of binary code analysis. Because source code can be compiled for different architectures, the need can arise for detecting code similarity across architectures. This need is especially apparent when analyzing firmware from embedded computing environments such as Internet of Things devices, where the processor architecture is dependent on the product and …

Sok: Analysis Of Software Supply Chain Security By Establishing Secure Design Properties, Chinenye Okafor, Taylor R. Schorlemmer, Santiao Torres-Arias, James C. Davis

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper systematizes knowledge about secure software supply chain patterns. It identifies four stages of a software supply chain attack and proposes three security properties crucial for a secured supply chain: transparency, validity, and separation. The paper describes current security approaches and maps them to the proposed security properties, including research ideas and case studies of supply chains in practice. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches relative to known attacks and details the various security frameworks put out to ensure the security of the software supply chain. Finally, the paper highlights potential gaps in actor and operation-centered …

Exploiting Input Sanitization For Regex Denial Of Service, Efe Barlas, Xin Du, James C. Davis

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Web services use server-side input sanitization to guard against harmful input. Some web services publish their sanitization logic to make their client interface more usable, e.g., allowing clients to debug invalid requests locally. However, this usability practice poses a security risk. Specifically, services may share the regexes they use to sanitize input strings — and regex-based denial of service (ReDoS) is an emerging threat. Although prominent service outages caused by ReDoS have spurred interest in this topic, we know little about the degree to which live web services are vulnerable to ReDoS.

In this paper, we conduct the first black-box …

Discrepancies Among Pre-Trained Deep Neural Networks: A New Threat To Model Zoo Reliability, Diego Montes, Pongpatapee Peerapatanapokin, Jeff Schultz, Chengjun Guo, Wenxin Jiang, James C. Davis

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Training deep neural networks (DNNs) takes significant time and resources. A practice for expedited deployment is to use pre-trained deep neural networks (PTNNs), often from model zoos.collections of PTNNs; yet, the reliability of model zoos remains unexamined. In the absence of an industry standard for the implementation and performance of PTNNs, engineers cannot confidently incorporate them into production systems. As a first step, discovering potential discrepancies between PTNNs across model zoos would reveal a threat to model zoo reliability. Prior works indicated existing variances in deep learning systems in terms of accuracy. However, broader measures of reliability for PTNNs from …

Secure Authenticated Key Exchange For Enhancing The Security Of Routing Protocol For Low-Power And Lossy Networks, Sarah Mohammed Alzahrani

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The current Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) standard provides three security modes Unsecured Mode (UM), Preinstalled Secure Mode (PSM), and Authenticated Secure Mode (ASM). The PSM and ASM are designed to prevent external routing attacks and specific replay attacks through an optional replay protection mechanism. RPL's PSM mode does not support key replacement when a malicious party obtains the key via differential cryptanalysis since it considers the key to be provided to nodes during the configuration of the network. This thesis presents an approach to implementing a secure authenticated key exchange mechanism for RPL, which ensures …

Bfv-Based Homomorphic Encryption For Privacy-Preserving Cnn Models, Febrianti Wibawa, Ferhat Ozgur Catak, Salih Sarp, Murat Kuzlu

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Medical data is frequently quite sensitive in terms of data privacy and security. Federated learning has been used to increase the privacy and security of medical data, which is a sort of machine learning technique. The training data is disseminated across numerous machines in federated learning, and the learning process is collaborative. There are numerous privacy attacks on deep learning (DL) models that attackers can use to obtain sensitive information. As a result, the DL model should be safeguarded from adversarial attacks, particularly in medical data applications. Homomorphic encryption-based model security from the adversarial collaborator is one of the answers …

Ggnb: Graph-Based Gaussian Naive Bayes Intrusion Detection System For Can Bus, Riadul Islam, Maloy K. Devnath, Manar D. Samad, Syed Md Jaffrey Al Kadry

Computer Science Faculty Research

The national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA) identified cybersecurity of the automobile systems are more critical than the security of other information systems. Researchers already demonstrated remote attacks on critical vehicular electronic control units (ECUs) using controller area network (CAN). Besides, existing intrusion detection systems (IDSs) often propose to tackle a specific type of attack, which may leave a system vulnerable to numerous other types of attacks. A generalizable IDS that can identify a wide range of attacks within the shortest possible time has more practical value than attack-specific IDSs, which is not a trivial task to accomplish. In this …

Don't Bite The Bait: Phishing Attack For Internet Banking (E-Banking), Ilker Kara

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Phishing attacks are based on obtaining desired information from users quickly and easily with the help of misdirecting, panicking, curiosity, or excitement. Most of the phishing web sites are designed on internet banking(e-banking) and the attackers can acquire financial information of misled users with the tactics and discourses they develop. Despite the increase of prevention techniques against phishing attacks day by day, an effective solution could not be found for this issue due to the human factor. Because of this reason, real phishing attack studies are essential to study and analyze the attackers’ attack techniques and strategies. This study focused …

Protection Of Patient Privacy On Mobile Device Machine Learning, Matthew Nguyen

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

An existing StudentLife Study mobile dataset was evaluated and organized to be applied to different machine learning methods. Different variables like user activity, exercise, sleep, study space, social, and stress levels are optimized to train a model that could predict user stress level. The different machine learning methods would test if both patient data privacy and training efficiency can be ensured.

Traffic Collision Avoidance System: False Injection Viability, John Hannah, Robert F. Mills, Richard Dill, Douglas D. Hodson

Faculty Publications

Safety is a simple concept but an abstract task, specifically with aircraft. One critical safety system, the Traffic Collision Avoidance System II (TCAS), protects against mid-air collisions by predicting the course of other aircraft, determining the possibility of collision, and issuing a resolution advisory for avoidance. Previous research to identify vulnerabilities associated with TCAS’s communication processes discovered that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk to veritable trust in TCAS, allowing for a mid-air collision. This research explores the viability of successfully executing a false injection attack against a target aircraft, triggering a resolution advisory. Monetary constraints precluded …

Efficient Server-Aided Secure Two-Party Computation In Heterogeneous Mobile Cloud Computing, Yulin Wu, Xuan Wang, Willy Susilo, Guomin Yang, Zoe L. Jiang, Qian Chen, Peng Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the ubiquity of mobile devices and rapid development of cloud computing, mobile cloud computing (MCC) has been considered as an essential computation setting to support complicated, scalable and flexible mobile applications by overcoming the physical limitations of mobile devices with the aid of cloud. In the MCC setting, since many mobile applications (e.g., map apps) interacting with cloud server and application server need to perform computation with the private data of users, it is important to realize secure computation for MCC. In this article, we propose an efficient server-aided secure two-party computation (2PC) protocol for MCC. This is the …

Warshipping: Hacking The Mailroom, Jackson Szwast, Bryson Payne

KSU Proceedings on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Everyone knows what package shipping is, but not everyone knows what warshipping is. Corporate mailrooms are rarely considered as part of the cybersecurity attack surface of most organizations, but they offer physical access to millions of uninspected packages daily. UPS shipped 5.5 billion items last year, with their daily average being 21.9 million items and operating through 1,800 locations in 2020. FedEx shipped 6.5 million packages daily and operates 2,150 locations. The United States Postal Service delivered 143 billion pieces of mail in 2019. Increasingly the world’s consumers are relying on e-commerce, and during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, package deliveries …

Effects Of Cloud Computing In The Workforce, Kevin Rossi Acosta

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

In recent years, the incorporation of cloud computing and cloud services has increased in many different types of organizations and companies. This paper will focus on the philosophical, economical, and political factors that cloud computing and cloud services have in the workforce and different organizations. Based on various scholarly articles and resources it was observed that organizations used cloud computing and cloud services to increase their overall productivity as well as decrease the overall cost of their operations, as well as the different policies that were created by lawmakers to control the realm of cloud computing. The results of this …

Enterprise Environment Modeling For Penetration Testing On The Openstack Virtualization Platform, Vincent Karovic Jr., Jakub Bartalos, Vincent Karovic, Michal Gregus

Journal of Global Business Insights

The article presents the design of a model environment for penetration testing of an organization using virtualization. The need for this model was based on the constantly increasing requirements for the security of information systems, both in legal terms and in accordance with international security standards. The model was created based on a specific team from the unnamed company. The virtual working environment offered the same functions as the physical environment. The virtual working environment was created in OpenStack and tested with a Linux distribution Kali Linux. We demonstrated that the virtual environment is functional and its security testable. Virtualizing …

Forensicast: A Non-Intrusive Approach & Tool For Logical Forensic Acquisition & Analysis Of The Google Chromecast Tv, Alex Sitterer, Nicholas Dubois, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The era of traditional cable Television (TV) is swiftly coming to an end. People today subscribe to a multitude of streaming services. Smart TVs have enabled a new generation of entertainment, not only limited to constant on-demand streaming as they now offer other features such as web browsing, communication, gaming etc. These functions have recently been embedded into a small IoT device that can connect to any TV with High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) input known as Google Chromecast TV. Its wide adoption makes it a treasure trove for potential digital evidence. Our work is the primary source on forensically …

Forensic Artifact Finder (Forensicaf): An Approach & Tool For Leveraging Crowd-Sourced Curated Forensic Artifacts, Tyler Balon, Krikor Herlopian, Ibrahim Baggili, Cinthya Grajeda-Mendez

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Current methods for artifact analysis and understanding depend on investigator expertise. Experienced and technically savvy examiners spend a lot of time reverse engineering applications while attempting to find crumbs they leave behind on systems. This takes away valuable time from the investigative process, and slows down forensic examination. Furthermore, when specific artifact knowledge is gained, it stays within the respective forensic units. To combat these challenges, we present ForensicAF, an approach for leveraging curated, crowd-sourced artifacts from the Artifact Genome Project (AGP). The approach has the overarching goal of uncovering forensically relevant artifacts from storage media. We explain our approach …

Another Brick In The Wall: An Exploratory Analysis Of Digital Forensics Programs In The United States, Syria Mccullough, Stella Abudu, Ebere Onwubuariri, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present a comprehensive review of digital forensics programs offered by universities across the United States (U.S.). While numerous studies on digital forensics standards and curriculum exist, few, if any, have examined digital forensics courses offered across the nation. Since digital forensics courses vary from university to university, online course catalogs for academic institutions were evaluated to curate a dataset. Universities were selected based on online searches, similar to those that would be made by prospective students. Ninety-seven (n = 97) degree programs in the U.S. were evaluated. Overall, results showed that advanced technical courses are missing from curricula. We …

Duck Hunt: Memory Forensics Of Usb Attack Platforms, Tyler Thomas, Mathew Piscitelli, Bhavik Ashok Nahar, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

To explore the memory forensic artifacts generated by USB-based attack platforms, we analyzed two of the most popular commercially available devices, Hak5's USB Rubber Ducky and Bash Bunny. We present two open source Volatility plugins, usbhunt and dhcphunt, which extract artifacts generated by these USB attacks from Windows 10 system memory images. Such artifacts include driver-related diagnostic events, unique device identifiers, and DHCP client logs. Our tools are capable of extracting metadata-rich Windows diagnostic events generated by any USB device. The device identifiers presented in this work may also be used to definitively detect device usage. Likewise, the DHCP logs …

Privacy-Preserving Cloud-Assisted Data Analytics, Wei Bao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays industries are collecting a massive and exponentially growing amount of data that can be utilized to extract useful insights for improving various aspects of our life. Data analytics (e.g., via the use of machine learning) has been extensively applied to make important decisions in various real world applications. However, it is challenging for resource-limited clients to analyze their data in an efficient way when its scale is large. Additionally, the data resources are increasingly distributed among different owners. Nonetheless, users' data may contain private information that needs to be protected.

Cloud computing has become more and more popular in …

Development Of A Reference Design For Intrusion Detection Using Neural Networks For A Smart Inverter, Ammar Mohammad Khan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a reference design for a base level implementation of an intrusion detection module using artificial neural networks that is deployed onto an inverter and runs on live data for cybersecurity purposes, leveraging the latest deep learning algorithms and tools. Cybersecurity in the smart grid industry focuses on maintaining optimal standards of security in the system and a key component of this is being able to detect cyberattacks. Although researchers and engineers aim to design such devices with embedded security, attacks can and do still occur. The foundation for eventually mitigating these attacks …

Windows Kernel Hijacking Is Not An Option: Memoryranger Comes To The Rescue Again, Igor Korkin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The security of a computer system depends on OS kernel protection. It is crucial to reveal and inspect new attacks on kernel data, as these are used by hackers. The purpose of this paper is to continue research into attacks on dynamically allocated data in the Windows OS kernel and demonstrate the capacity of MemoryRanger to prevent these attacks. This paper discusses three new hijacking attacks on kernel data, which are based on bypassing OS security mechanisms. The first two hijacking attacks result in illegal access to files open in exclusive access. The third attack escalates process privileges, without applying …

A Method For Comparative Analysis Of Trusted Execution Environments, Stephano Cetola

Dissertations and Theses

The problem of secure remote computation has become a serious concern of hardware manufacturers and software developers alike. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are a solution to the problem of secure remote computation in applications ranging from "chip and pin" financial transactions to intellectual property protection in modern gaming systems. While extensive literature has been published about many of these technologies, there exists no current model for comparing TEEs. This thesis provides hardware architects and designers with a set of tools for comparing TEEs. I do so by examining several properties of a TEE and comparing their implementations in several technologies. …

Ultrapin: Inferring Pin Entries Via Ultrasound, Liu, Ximing, Robert H. Deng, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While PIN-based user authentication systems such as ATM have long been considered to be secure enough, they are facing new attacks, named UltraPIN, which can be launched from commodity smartphones. As a target user enters a PIN on a PIN-based user authentication system, an attacker may use UltraPIN to infer the PIN from a short distance (50 cm to 100 cm). In this process, UltraPIN leverages smartphone speakers to issue human-inaudible ultrasound signals and uses smartphone microphones to keep recording acoustic signals. It applies a series of signal processing techniques to extract high-quality feature vectors from low-energy and high-noise signals …

When Program Analysis Meets Bytecode Search: Targeted And Efficient Inter-Procedural Analysis Of Modern Android Apps In Backdroid, Daoyuan Wu, Debin Gao, Robert H. Deng, Rocky Chang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Widely-used Android static program analysis tools,e.g., Amandroid and FlowDroid, perform the whole-app interprocedural analysis that is comprehensive but fundamentallydifficult to handle modern (large) apps. The average app size hasincreased three to four times over five years. In this paper, weexplore a new paradigm of targeted inter-procedural analysis thatcan skip irrelevant code and focus only on the flows of securitysensitive sink APIs. To this end, we propose a technique calledon-the-fly bytecode search, which searches the disassembled appbytecode text just in time when a caller needs to be located. In thisway, it guides targeted (and backward) inter-procedural analysisstep by step until reaching …