Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Path-Safe: Enabling Dynamic Mandatory Access Controls Using Security Tokens, James P. Maclennan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Deploying Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) is a popular way to provide host protection against malware. Unfortunately, current implementations lack the flexibility to adapt to emergent malware threats and are known for being difficult to configure. A core tenet of MAC security systems is that the policies they are deployed with are immutable from the host while they are active. This work looks at deploying a MAC system that leverages using encrypted security tokens to allow for redeploying policy configurations in real-time without the need to stop a running process. This is instrumental in developing an adaptive framework for security systems …

"You Shouldn't Need To Share Your Data": Perceived Privacy Risks And Mitigation Strategies Among Privacy-Conscious Smart Home Power Users, Anna Lenhart, Sunyup Park, Michael Zimmer, Jessica Vitak

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Fueled by Internet-of-Things technologies and spanning a wide range of sensors, speakers, and cameras, smart homes promise to make our lives easier and automate routine tasks. From speakers to security cameras, smart home devices (SHDs) answer our questions, monitor our home environment, and conserve energy. They also collect significant data, ranging from on/off commands to audio and video data, and they do this in some of our most private spaces. In this paper, we explore the privacy risks associated with SHDs by focusing on privacy-conscious smart home power users--those who spend significant time and money to research, install, and integrate …

A Survey Of Wearable Devices Pairing Based On Biometric Signals, Jafar Pourbemany, Ye Zhu, Riccardo Bettati

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

With the rapid growth of wearable devices, more applications require direct communication between wearable devices. To secure the communication between wearable devices, various pairing protocols have been proposed to generate common keys for encrypting the communication. Since the wearable devices are attached to the same body, the devices can generate common keys based on the same context by utilizing onboard sensors to capture a common biometric signal such as body motion, gait, heartbeat, respiration, and EMG signals. The context-based pairing does not need prior information to generate common keys. As context-based pairing does not need any human involvement in the …

Insecure Deserialization Detection In Python, Aneesh Verma

Master's Projects

The importance of Cyber Security is increasing every single day. From the emergence of new ransomware to major data breaches, the online world is getting dangerous. A multinational non- profit group devoted to online application security is called OWASP, or the Open Web Application Security Project. The OWASP Top 10 is a frequently updated report that highlights the ten most important vulnerabilities to web application security. Among these 10 vulnerabilities, there exists a vulnerability called Software and Data Integrity Failures. A subset of this vulnerability is Insecure Deserialization. An object is transformed into a stream of bytes through the serialization …

Using Blockchain For Enabling Transparent, Traceable, And Trusted University Ranking Systems, Ammar Battah, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Ibrar Yaqoob, Ashraf Khalil

All Works

Ranking systems have proven to improve the quality of education and help build the reputation of academic institutions. Each of the current academic ranking systems is based on different methodologies, criteria, and standards of measurement. Academic and employer reputations are subjective indicators of some rankings determined through surveying that is neither transparent nor traceable. The current academic ranking systems fall short of providing transparency and traceability features for both subjective and objective indicators that are used to calculate the ranking. Also, the ranking systems are managed and controlled in a centralized manner by specific entities. This raises concerns about fairness …

Mitigation Of Cache Attacks On Cloud Services, Mudassiruddin Mohammed

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing is frequently used due to its low cost and flexibility, but it also raises security issues to cloud service providers and customers. Cache attacks are a critical security risk in cloud computing. Cache attacks use weaknesses in cloud servers' cache memory to steal sensitive information, interrupt services, and decrease cloud performance. This study examines the many forms of cache attacks, their possible effects, and known mitigation measures. The study approach includes a review of current methods and their effectiveness in combating cache attack. The report also suggests future research topics for developing more effective and economical methods for …

A Survey On Security Analysis Of Amazon Echo Devices, Surendra Pathak, Sheikh Ariful Islam, Honglu Jiang, Lei Xu, Emmett Tomai

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Since its launch in 2014, Amazon Echo family of devices has seen a considerable increase in adaptation in consumer homes and offices. With a market worth millions of dollars, Echo is used for diverse tasks such as accessing online information, making phone calls, purchasing items, and controlling the smart home. Echo offers user-friendly voice interaction to automate everyday tasks making it a massive success. Though many people view Amazon Echo as a helpful assistant at home or office, few know its underlying security and privacy implications. In this paper, we present the findings of our research on Amazon Echo’s security …

Vfirm: Verifiable Fine-Grained Encrypted Image Retrieval In Multi-Owner Multi-User Settings, Qiuyun Tong, Yinbin Miao, Lei Chen, Jian Weng, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Ximeng Liu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To ensure the security of images outsourced to the malicious cloud without affecting searchability on such outsourced (typically encrypted) images, one could use privacy-preserving Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) primitive. However, conventional privacy-preserving CBIR schemes based on Searchable Symmetric Encryption (SSE) are not capable of supporting efficient fine-grained access control and result verification simultaneously. Therefore, in this article, we propose a Verifiable Fine-grained encrypted Image Retrieval scheme in the Multi-owner multi-user settings (VFIRM). VFIRM first utilizes a novel polynomial-based access strategy to provide efficient fine-grained access control. Then, it employs the dual secure kk-nearest neighbor technique to distribute distinct keys to …

Reliable Policy Updating Under Efficient Policy Hidden Fine-Grained Access Control Framework For Cloud Data Sharing, Zuobin Ying, Wenjie Jiang, Ximeng Liu, Shengmin Xu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) is one of the potent encryption paradigms in protecting data confidentiality in the cloud data sharing scenario. However, the access policy of the traditional CP-ABE is in plaintext form that reveals significant sensitive information of data owners and data visitors. To mitigate this problem, two approaches have been proposed in the literature. One is partially hidden, where the attributes in the access policy are divided into two parts: the plaintext attribute names and the hidden attribute values. The other approach fully hides the attributes in the access policy which, unfortunately, hinders efficient and correct decryption as …

Software Protection And Secure Authentication For Autonomous Vehicular Cloud Computing, Muhammad Hataba

Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing every technology we deal with. Autonomy has been a sought-after goal in vehicles, and now more than ever we are very close to that goal. Vehicles before were dumb mechanical devices, now they are becoming smart, computerized, and connected coined as Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). Moreover, researchers found a way to make more use of these enormous capabilities and introduced Autonomous Vehicles Cloud Computing (AVCC). In these platforms, vehicles can lend their unused resources and sensory data to join AVCC.

In this dissertation, we investigate security and privacy issues in AVCC. As background, we built our …

Multi-Functional Job Roles To Support Operations In A Multi-Faceted Jewel Enabled By Ai And Digital Transformation, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this story, we highlight the way in which the use of AI enabled support systems, together with work process digital transformation and innovative approaches to job redesign, have combined to dramatically change the nature of the work of the front-line service staff who protect and support the facility and visitors at the world’s most iconic airport mall and lifestyle destination.

Nft Certificates And Proof Of Delivery For Fine Jewelry And Gemstones, Noura Alnuaimi, Alanoud Almemari, Mohammad Madine, Khaled Salah, Hamda Al Breiki, Raja Jayaraman

All Works

Fine jewelry is a unique class of ornaments composed of precious metals and gemstones. Premium-grade metals such as gold, platinum, and sliver, and gemstones such as pearls, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds are used use to make fine jewelry. Paper-based certificates are typically issued by retailers and producers for fine jewelry and gemstones as a proof of origin, sale, ownership, history, and quality. However, paper certificates are subject to counterfeiting, loss, or theft. In this paper, we show how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Ethereum blockchain can be used for digital certification, proof of ownership, sale history, and quality, as well as …

Presenting A Method To Detect Intrusion In Iot Through Private Blockchain, Rezvan Mahmoudie, Saeed Parsa, Amir Masoud Rahmani

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Blockchain (BC) has been used as a new solution to overcome security and privacy challenges in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, recent studies have indicated that the BC has a limited scalability and is computationally costly. Also, it has significant overhead and delay in the network, which is not suitable to the nature of IoT. This article aims at implementing BC in the IoT context for smart home management, as the integration of these two technologies ensures the IoT's security and privacy. Therefore, we proposed an overlay network in private BC to optimize its compatibility with IoT by increasing …

Witness-Authenticated Key Exchange, Kelsey G. Melissaris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation we investigate Witness-Authenticated Key Exchange (WAKE), a key agreement protocol in which each party is authenticated through knowledge of a witness to an arbitrary NP statement. We provide both game-based and universally composable definitions. Thereby, this thesis presents solutions for the most flexible and general method of authentication for group key exchange, providing simple constructions from (succinct) signatures of knowledge (SOK) and a two round UC-secure protocol.

After a discussion of flaws in previous definitions for WAKE we supply a new and improved game-based definition along with the first definition for witness-authenticated key exchange between groups of …

Emerging Technologies, Evolving Threats: Next-Generation Security Challenges, Tamara Bonaci, Katina Michael, Pablo Rivas, Lindsay J. Roberston, Michael Zimmer

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Security is a fundamental human requirement. We desire the security of our person against injury, security of our capability to provide for our families, security of income linked to needs (food, water, clothing, and shelter), and much more. Most also hope for security of a way of life that is fulfilling and pleasant and peaceful [1] . In 2003, Alkire [2] defined “human security” as: “[t]he objective … to safeguard the vital core of all human lives from critical pervasive threats, in a way that is consistent with long-term human fulfillment.” Today most of the world’s population is highly dependent, …

Fine-Grained And Controllably Editable Data Sharing With Accountability In Cloud Storage, Huiying Hou, Jianting Ning, Yunlei Zhao, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the increasing cloud storage service, users can enjoy non-interactive data sharing. Nonetheless, the data owner cannot timely update the shared data all the while. To ensure the timeliness and the authoritative source of the data, some users should be allowed to update the data on behalf of an authoritative data owner without changing data source. However, this allows harmful information to be injected into the data unnoticeably. How to efficiently realize editable cloud-based data sharing supporting malicious user tracing has not been fully explored. To address the problem, we propose a fine-grained and controllably editable cloud-based data sharing scheme …

The Effects Of Side-Channel Attacks On Post-Quantum Cryptography: Influencing Frodokem Key Generation Using The Rowhammer Exploit, Michael Jacob Fahr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern cryptographic algorithms such as AES and RSA are effectively used for securing data transmission. However, advancements in quantum computing pose a threat to modern cryptography algorithms due to the potential of solving hard mathematical problems faster than conventional computers. Thus, to prepare for quantum computing, NIST has started a competition to standardize quantum-resistant public-key cryptography algorithms. These algorithms are evaluated for strong theoretical security and run-time performance. NIST is in the third round of the competition, and the focus has shifted to analyzing the vulnerabilities to side-channel attacks. One algorithm that has gained notice is the Round 3 alternate …

Code Cyber: A Curated Collection Of Cybersecurity Career Learning And Preparation Resources, Kazi Tasin, Ethan Pruzhansky, Jason Lin, Tanvir Rahman, Patrick J. Slattery

Publications and Research

Since we are living in a digital age, the need to protect ourselves and those who are vulnerable to cyber-attacks is paramount to prevent cyber attacks that steal information such as banking accounts and important sensitive information.

Our research team extensively investigated the five aspects of cybersecurity such as identity, protection, detection, and response. By conducting various interviews with cybersecurity professionals, we gathered information about these five aspects for example security intelligence or security operations and response, (thread hunting, response orchestration) identity access management, (identity management, and data protection), and risks (risk perspective). Our main goal is to look into …

Formal Verification Applications For The Treekem Continuous Group Key Agreement Protocol, Alexander J. Washburn

Theses and Dissertations

The features of Secure Group Messaging, the security guarantees of Message Layer Security, and the TreeKEM protocol designed to satisfy these guarantees and features are explored. A motivation and methodology for verification via explicit model checking is presented. Subsequently, a translation of the TreeKEM protocol into a Promela reference model is described, examining the nuances explicit model checking brings. Finally the results of the formal verification methods are discussed.

Security Simulations In Undergraduate Education: A Review, Joseph Simpson, Aaron Brantly

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Several decades of research in simulation and gamification in higher education shows that simulations are highly effective in improving a range of outcomes for students including declarative knowledge and interest in the topic being taught. While there appears to be a broad array of options to provide education in an undergraduate setting related to security, no previous reviews have explored computer-based simulations covering all facets of security. Given the increasing importance and adoption of interdisciplinary educational programs, it is important to take stock of simulations as a tool to broaden the range of problems, perspectives, and solutions presented to students. …

Using Blockchain To Improve Security Of The Internet Of Things, Joshua W. Quist

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The Internet of Things has increased in popularity in recent years, with daily life now being surrounded by “smart devices.” This network of smart devices, such as thermostats, refrigerators, and even stationary bikes affords us convenience, but at a cost. Security measures are typically inferior on these devices; considering that they collect our data around the clock, this is a big reason for concern. Recent research shows that blockchain technology may be one way to address these security concerns. This paper discusses the Internet of Things and the current issues with how security is handled, discusses how blockchain can shore …

Data Quality Matters: A Case Study On Data Label Correctness For Security Bug Report Prediction, Xiaoxue Wu, Wei Zheng, Xin Xia, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In the research of mining software repositories, we need to label a large amount of data to construct a predictive model. The correctness of the labels will affect the performance of a model substantially. However, limited studies have been performed to investigate the impact of mislabeled instances on a predictive model. To bridge the gap, in this article, we perform a case study on the security bug report (SBR) prediction. We found five publicly available datasets for SBR prediction contains many mislabeled instances, which lead to the poor performance of SBR prediction models of recent studies (e.g., the work of …

Online Privacy Challenges And Their Forensic Solutions, Bandr Fakiha

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

In the digital age, internet users are exposed to privacy issues online. Few rarely know when someone else is eavesdropping or about to scam them. Companies, governments, and individual internet users are all vulnerable to security breaches due to the challenges of online privacy ranging from trust and hierarchical control to financial losses. As systems advance, people are optimistic that forensic science will provide long-term interventions that surpass the current solutions, including setting stronger passwords and firewall protection. The future of online privacy is changing, and more practical interventions, such as email, malware, mobile, and network forensics, must be integrated, …

Torsh: Obfuscating Consumer Internet-Of-Things Traffic With A Collaborative Smart-Home Router Network, Adam Vandenbussche

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

When consumers install Internet-connected "smart devices" in their homes, metadata arising from the communications between these devices and their cloud-based service providers enables adversaries privy to this traffic to profile users, even when adequate encryption is used. Internet service providers (ISPs) are one potential adversary privy to users’ incom- ing and outgoing Internet traffic and either currently use this insight to assemble and sell consumer advertising profiles or may in the future do so. With existing defenses against such profiling falling short of meeting user preferences and abilities, there is a need for a novel solution that empowers consumers to …

Towards Practicalization Of Blockchain-Based Decentralized Applications, Songlin He

Dissertations

Blockchain can be defined as an immutable ledger for recording transactions, maintained in a distributed network of mutually untrusting peers. Blockchain technology has been widely applied to various fields beyond its initial usage of cryptocurrency. However, blockchain itself is insufficient to meet all the desired security or efficiency requirements for diversified application scenarios. This dissertation focuses on two core functionalities that blockchain provides, i.e., robust storage and reliable computation. Three concrete application scenarios including Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity management (CSM), and peer-to-peer (P2P) content delivery network (CDN) are utilized to elaborate the general design principles for these two main …

A Systematic Review On Machine Learning Models For Online Learning And Examination Systems, Sanaa Kaddoura, Daniela Elena Popescu, Jude D. Hemanth

All Works

Examinations or assessments play a vital role in every student’s life; they determine their future and career paths. The COVID pandemic has left adverse impacts in all areas, including the academic field. The regularized classroom learning and face-to-face real-time examinations were not feasible to avoid widespread infection and ensure safety. During these desperate times, technological advancements stepped in to aid students in continuing their education without any academic breaks. Machine learning is a key to this digital transformation of schools or colleges from real-time to online mode. Online learning and examination during lockdown were made possible by Machine learning methods. …

Information Provenance For Mobile Health Data, Taylor A. Hardin

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Mobile health (mHealth) apps and devices are increasingly popular for health research, clinical treatment and personal wellness, as they offer the ability to continuously monitor aspects of individuals' health as they go about their everyday activities. Many believe that combining the data produced by these mHealth apps and devices may give healthcare-related service providers and researchers a more holistic view of an individual's health, increase the quality of service, and reduce operating costs. For such mHealth data to be considered useful though, data consumers need to be assured that the authenticity and the integrity of the data has remained intact---especially …

Shining A Light On Marginal Food Insecurity In An Understudied Population Comment, Angela D. Liese

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Establishing Trust In Vehicle-To-Vehicle Coordination: A Sensor Fusion Approach, Jakob Veselsky, Jack West, Isaac Ahlgren, George K. Thiruvathukal, Neil Klingensmith, Abhinav Goel, Wenxin Jiang, James C. Davis, Kyuin Lee, Younghyun Kim

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) use diverse sensors to understand their surroundings as they continually make safety- critical decisions. However, establishing trust with other AVs is a key prerequisite because safety-critical decisions cannot be made based on data shared from untrusted sources. Existing protocols require an infrastructure network connection and a third-party root of trust to establish a secure channel, which are not always available.

In this paper, we propose a sensor-fusion approach for mobile trust establishment, which combines GPS and visual data. The combined data forms evidence that one vehicle is nearby another, which is a strong indication that it is …

An Evaluation Of Security In Blockchain-Based Sharing Of Student Records In Higher Education, Timothy Arndt, Angela Guercio, Yonghun Chae

Information Systems

Blockchain has recently taken off as a disruptive technology, from its initial use in cryptocurrencies to wider applications in areas such as property registration and insurance due to its characteristic as a distributed ledger which can remove the need for a trusted third party to facilitate transactions. This spread of the technology to new application areas has been driven by the development of smart contracts – blockchain-based protocols which can automatically enforce a contract by executing code based on the logic expressed in the contract. One exciting area for blockchain is higher education. Students in higher education are ever more …