CRYPTOGRAPHY AND NETWORK SECURITY PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE SEVENTH EDITION GLOBAL EDITION
William Stallings
Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Hoboken Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montréal Toronto
Delhi Mexico City São Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo
For Tricia: never dull, never boring, the smartest and bravest person
I know
ISBN 10:1-292-15858-1 ISBN 13: 978-1-292-15858-7
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Vice President and Editorial Director, ECS: Marcia J. Horton Executive Editor: Tracy Johnson (Dunkelberger) Editorial Assistant: Kristy Alaura Acquisitions Editor, Global Editions: Abhijit Baroi Program Manager: Carole Snyder Project Manager: Robert Engelhardt Project Editor, Global Editions: K.K. Neelakantan Media Team Lead: Steve Wright R&P Manager: Rachel Youdelman R&P Senior Project Manager: William Opaluch Senior Operations Specialist: Maura Zaldivar-Garcia Inventory Manager: Meredith Maresca
Inventory Manager: Meredith Maresca Senior Manufacturing Controller, Global Editions: Trudy Kimber Media Production Manager, Global Editions: Vikram Kumar Product Marketing Manager: Bram Van Kempen Marketing Assistant: Jon Bryant Cover Designer: Lumina Datamatics Cover Art: © goghy73 / Shutterstock Full-Service Project Management: Chandrakala Prakash, SPi Global Composition: SPi Global
Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on page 753.
© Pearson Education Limited 2017
The right of William Stallings to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Authorized adaptation from the United States edition, entitled Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice, 7th Edition, ISBN 978-0-13-444428-4, by William Stallings published by Pearson Education © 2017.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. The use of any trademark in this text does not vest in the author or publisher any trademark ownership rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with or endorsement of this book by such owners.
Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England
and Associated Companies throughout the world
Visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsonglobaleditions.com
Typeset by SPi Global Printed and bound in Malaysia.
http://www.pearsonglobaleditions.com
3
CONTENTS Notation 10
Preface 12
About the Author 18
PART ONE: BACKGROUND 19
Chapter 1 Computer and Network Security Concepts 19
1.1 Computer Security Concepts 21 1.2 The OSI Security Architecture 26 1.3 Security Attacks 27 1.4 Security Services 29 1.5 Security Mechanisms 32 1.6 Fundamental Security Design Principles 34 1.7 Attack Surfaces and Attack Trees 37 1.8 A Model for Network Security 41 1.9 Standards 43 1.10 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 44
Chapter 2 Introduction to Number Theory 46
2.1 Divisibility and the Division Algorithm 47 2.2 The Euclidean Algorithm 49 2.3 Modular Arithmetic 53 2.4 Prime Numbers 61 2.5 Fermat’s and Euler’s Theorems 64 2.6 Testing for Primality 68 2.7 The Chinese Remainder Theorem 71 2.8 Discrete Logarithms 73 2.9 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 78 Appendix 2A The Meaning of Mod 82
PART TWO: SYMMETRIC CIPHERS 85
Chapter 3 Classical Encryption Techniques 85
3.1 Symmetric Cipher Model 86 3.2 Substitution Techniques 92 3.3 Transposition Techniques 107 3.4 Rotor Machines 108 3.5 Steganography 110 3.6 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 112
Chapter 4 Block Ciphers and the Data Encryption Standard 118
4.1 Traditional Block Cipher Structure 119 4.2 The Data Encryption Standard 129 4.3 A DES Example 131 4.4 The Strength of DES 134
4 CONTENTS
4.5 Block Cipher Design Principles 135 4.6 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 137
Chapter 5 Finite Fields 141
5.1 Groups 143 5.2 Rings 145 5.3 Fields 146 5.4 Finite Fields of the Form GF(p) 147 5.5 Polynomial Arithmetic 151 5.6 Finite Fields of the Form GF(2n) 157 5.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 169
Chapter 6 Advanced Encryption Standard 171
6.1 Finite Field Arithmetic 172 6.2 AES Structure 174 6.3 AES Transformation Functions 179 6.4 AES Key Expansion 190 6.5 An AES Example 193 6.6 AES Implementation 197 6.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 202 Appendix 6A Polynomials with Coefficients in GF(28) 203
Chapter 7 Block Cipher Operation 207
7.1 Multiple Encryption and Triple DES 208 7.2 Electronic Codebook 213 7.3 Cipher Block Chaining Mode 216 7.4 Cipher Feedback Mode 218 7.5 Output Feedback Mode 220 7.6 Counter Mode 222 7.7 XTS-AES Mode for Block-Oriented Storage Devices 224 7.8 Format-Preserving Encryption 231 7.9 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 245
Chapter 8 Random Bit Generation and Stream Ciphers 250
8.1 Principles of Pseudorandom Number Generation 252 8.2 Pseudorandom Number Generators 258 8.3 Pseudorandom Number Generation Using a Block Cipher 261 8.4 Stream Ciphers 267 8.5 RC4 269 8.6 True Random Number Generators 271 8.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 280
PART THREE: ASYMMETRIC CIPHERS 283
Chapter 9 Public-Key Cryptography and RSA 283
9.1 Principles of Public-Key Cryptosystems 285 9.2 The RSA Algorithm 294 9.3 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 308
CONTENTS 5
Chapter 10 Other Public-Key Cryptosystems 313
10.1 Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange 314 10.2 Elgamal Cryptographic System 318 10.3 Elliptic Curve Arithmetic 321 10.4 Elliptic Curve Cryptography 330 10.5 Pseudorandom Number Generation Based on an Asymmetric Cipher 334 10.6 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 336
PART FOUR: CRYPTOGRAPHIC DATA INTEGRITY ALGORITHMS 339
Chapter 11 Cryptographic Hash Functions 339
11.1 Applications of Cryptographic Hash Functions 341 11.2 Two Simple Hash Functions 346 11.3 Requirements and Security 348 11.4 Hash Functions Based on Cipher Block Chaining 354 11.5 Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) 355 11.6 SHA-3 365 11.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 377
Chapter 12 Message Authentication Codes 381
12.1 Message Authentication Requirements 382 12.2 Message Authentication Functions 383 12.3 Requirements for Message Authentication Codes 391 12.4 Security of MACs 393 12.5 MACs Based on Hash Functions: HMAC 394 12.6 MACs Based on Block Ciphers: DAA and CMAC 399 12.7 Authenticated Encryption: CCM and GCM 402 12.8 Key Wrapping 408 12.9 Pseudorandom Number Generation Using Hash Functions and MACs 413 12.10 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 416
Chapter 13 Digital Signatures 419
13.1 Digital Signatures 421 13.2 Elgamal Digital Signature Scheme 424 13.3 Schnorr Digital Signature Scheme 425 13.4 NIST Digital Signature Algorithm 426 13.5 Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm 430 13.6 RSA-PSS Digital Signature Algorithm 433 13.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 438
PART FIVE: MUTUAL TRUST 441
Chapter 14 Key Management and Distribution 441
14.1 Symmetric Key Distribution Using Symmetric Encryption 442 14.2 Symmetric Key Distribution Using Asymmetric Encryption 451 14.3 Distribution of Public Keys 454 14.4 X.509 Certificates 459
6 CONTENTS
14.5 Public-Key Infrastructure 467 14.6 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 469
Chapter 15 User Authentication 473
15.1 Remote User-Authentication Principles 474 15.2 Remote User-Authentication Using Symmetric Encryption 478 15.3 Kerberos 482 15.4 Remote User-Authentication Using Asymmetric Encryption 500 15.5 Federated Identity Management 502 15.6 Personal Identity Verification 508 15.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 515
PART SIX: NETWORK AND INTERNET SECURITY 519
Chapter 16 Network Access Control and Cloud Security 519
16.1 Network Access Control 520 16.2 Extensible Authentication Protocol 523 16.3 IEEE 802.1X Port-Based Network Access Control 527 16.4 Cloud Computing 529 16.5 Cloud Security Risks and Countermeasures 535 16.6 Data Protection in the Cloud 537 16.7 Cloud Security as a Service 541 16.8 Addressing Cloud Computing Security Concerns 544 16.9 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 545
Chapter 17 Transport-Level Security 546
17.1 Web Security Considerations 547 17.2 Transport Layer Security 549 17.3 HTTPS 566 17.4 Secure Shell (SSH) 567 17.5 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 579
Chapter 18 Wireless Network Security 581
18.1 Wireless Security 582 18.2 Mobile Device Security 585 18.3 IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Overview 589 18.4 IEEE 802.11i Wireless LAN Security 595 18.5 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 610
Chapter 19 Electronic Mail Security 612
19.1 Internet Mail Architecture 613 19.2 Email Formats 617 19.3 Email Threats and Comprehensive Email Security 625 19.4 S/MIME 627 19.5 Pretty Good Privacy 638 19.6 DNSSEC 639 19.7 DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities 643 19.8 Sender Policy Framework 645 19.9 DomainKeys Identified Mail 648
CONTENTS 7
19.10 Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance 654 19.11 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 659
Chapter 20 IP Security 661
20.1 IP Security Overview 662 20.2 IP Security Policy 668 20.3 Encapsulating Security Payload 673 20.4 Combining Security Associations 681 20.5 Internet Key Exchange 684 20.6 Cryptographic Suites 692 20.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 694
APPENDICES 696
Appendix A Projects for Teaching Cryptography and Network Security 696
A.1 Sage Computer Algebra Projects 697 A.2 Hacking Project 698 A.3 Block Cipher Projects 699 A.4 Laboratory Exercises 699 A.5 Research Projects 699 A.6 Programming Projects 700 A.7 Practical Security Assessments 700 A.8 Firewall Projects 701 A.9 Case Studies 701 A.10 Writing Assignments 701 A.11 Reading/Report Assignments 702 A.12 Discussion Topics 702
Appendix B Sage Examples 703
B.1 Linear Algebra and Matrix Functionality 704 B.2 Chapter 2: Number Theory 705 B.3 Chapter 3: Classical Encryption 710 B.4 Chapter 4: Block Ciphers and the Data Encryption Standard 713 B.5 Chapter 5: Basic Concepts in Number Theory and Finite Fields 717 B.6 Chapter 6: Advanced Encryption Standard 724 B.7 Chapter 8: Pseudorandom Number Generation and Stream Ciphers 729 B.8 Chapter 9: Public-Key Cryptography and RSA 731 B.9 Chapter 10: Other Public-Key Cryptosystems 734 B.10 Chapter 11: Cryptographic Hash Functions 739 B.11 Chapter 13: Digital Signatures 741
References 744
Credits 753
Index 754
8 CONTENTS
ONLINE CHAPTERS AND APPENDICES1
PART SEVEN: SYSTEM SECURITY
Chapter 21 Malicious Software
21.1 Types of Malicious Software (Malware) 21.2 Advanced Persistent Threat 21.3 Propagation—Infected Content—Viruses 21.4 Propagation—Vulnerability Exploit—Worms 21.5 Propagation—Social Engineering—Spam E-mail, Trojans 21.6 Payload—System Corruption 21.7 Payload—Attack Agent—Zombie, Bots 21.8 Payload—Information Theft—Keyloggers, Phishing, Spyware 21.9 Payload—Stealthing—Backdoors, Rootkits 21.10 Countermeasures 21.11 Distributed Denial of Service Attacks 21.12 References 21.13 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
Chapter 22 Intruders
22.1 Intruders 22.2 Intrusion Detection 22.3 Password Management 22.4 References 22.5 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
Chapter 23 Firewalls
23.1 The Need for Firewalls 23.2 Firewall Characteristics and Access Policy 23.3 Types of Firewalls 23.4 Firewall Basing 23.5 Firewall Location and Configurations 23.6 References 23.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
PART EIGHT: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
Chapter 24 Legal and Ethical Aspects
24.1 Cybercrime and Computer Crime 24.2 Intellectual Property 24.3 Privacy 24.4 Ethical Issues 24.5 Recommended Reading 24.6 References 24.7 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems 24.A Information Privacy
1Online chapters, appendices, and other documents are at the Companion Website, available via the access card at the front of this book.
CONTENTS 9
Appendix C Sage Exercises
Appendix D Standards and Standard-Setting Organizations
Appendix E Basic Concepts from Linear Algebra
Appendix F Measures of Secrecy and Security
Appendix G Simplified DES
Appendix H Evaluation Criteria for AES
Appendix I Simplified AES
Appendix J The Knapsack Algorithm
Appendix K Proof of the Digital Signature Algorithm
Appendix L TCP/IP and OSI
Appendix M Java Cryptographic APIs
Appendix N MD5 Hash Function
Appendix O Data Compression Using ZIP
Appendix P PGP
Appendix Q The International Reference Alphabet
Appendix R Proof of the RSA Algorithm
Appendix S Data Encryption Standard
Appendix T Kerberos Encryption Techniques
Appendix U Mathematical Basis of the Birthday Attack
Appendix V Evaluation Criteria for SHA-3
Appendix W The Complexity of Algorithms
Appendix X Radix-64 Conversion
Appendix Y The Base Rate Fallacy
Glossary
NOTATION
Symbol Expression Meaning
D, K D(K, Y) Symmetric decryption of ciphertext Y using secret key K
D, PRa D(PRa, Y) Asymmetric decryption of ciphertext Y using A’s private key PRa
D, PUa D(PUa, Y) Asymmetric decryption of ciphertext Y using A’s public key PUa
E, K E(K, X) Symmetric encryption of plaintext X using secret key K
E, PRa E(PRa, X) Asymmetric encryption of plaintext X using A’s private key PRa
E, PUa E(PUa, X) Asymmetric encryption of plaintext X using A’s public key PUa
K Secret key
PRa Private key of user A
PUa Public key of user A
MAC, K MAC(K, X) Message authentication code of message X using secret key K
GF(p) The finite field of order p, where p is prime.The field is defined as the set Zp together with the arithmetic operations modulo p.
GF(2n) The finite field of order 2n
Zn Set of nonnegative integers less than n
gcd gcd(i, j) Greatest common divisor; the largest positive integer that divides both i and j with no remainder on division.
mod a mod m Remainder after division of a by m
mod, K a K b (mod m) a mod m = b mod m
mod, [ a [ b (mod m) a mod m ≠ b mod m
dlog dloga,p(b) Discrete logarithm of the number b for the base a (mod p)
w f(n) The number of positive integers less than n and relatively prime to n. This is Euler’s totient function.
Σ a n
i=1 ai a1 + a2 + g + an
Π q n
i=1 ai a1 * a2 * g * an
� i � j i divides j, which means that there is no remainder when j is divided by i
� , � �a � Absolute value of a
10
NOTATION 11
Symbol Expression Meaning
} x } y x concatenated with y
≈ x ≈ y x is approximately equal to y
⊕ x⊕ y Exclusive-OR of x and y for single-bit variables; Bitwise exclusive-OR of x and y for multiple-bit variables
:, ; :x; The largest integer less than or equal to x ∈ x∈ S The element x is contained in the set S.
· A · (a1, a2, c ak)
The integer A corresponds to the sequence of integers (a1, a2, c ak)
PREFACE
WHAT’S NEW IN THE SEVENTH EDITION
In the four years since the sixth edition of this book was published, the field has seen contin- ued innovations and improvements. In this new edition, I try to capture these changes while maintaining a broad and comprehensive coverage of the entire field. To begin this process of revision, the sixth edition of this book was extensively reviewed by a number of professors who teach the subject and by professionals working in the field. The result is that, in many places, the narrative has been clarified and tightened, and illustrations have been improved.
Beyond these refinements to improve pedagogy and user-friendliness, there have been substantive changes throughout the book. Roughly the same chapter organization has been retained, but much of the material has been revised and new material has been added. The most noteworthy changes are as follows:
■ Fundamental security design principles: Chapter 1 includes a new section discussing the security design principles listed as fundamental by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense, which is jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
■ Attack surfaces and attack trees: Chapter 1 includes a new section describing these two concepts, which are useful in evaluating and classifying security threats.
■ Number theory coverage: The material on number theory has been consolidated into a single chapter, Chapter 2. This makes for a convenient reference. The relevant portions of Chapter 2 can be assigned as needed.
■ Finite fields: The chapter on finite fields has been revised and expanded with addi- tional text and new figures to enhance understanding.
■ Format-preserving encryption: This relatively new mode of encryption is enjoying increasing commercial success. A new section in Chapter 7 covers this method.
■ Conditioning and health testing for true random number generators: Chapter 8 now provides coverage of these important topics.
■ User authentication model: Chapter 15 includes a new description of a general model for user authentication, which helps to unify the discussion of the various approaches to user authentication.
■ Cloud security: The material on cloud security in Chapter 16 has been updated and expanded to reflect its importance and recent developments.
■ Transport Layer Security (TLS): The treatment of TLS in Chapter 17 has been updated, reorganized to improve clarity, and now includes a discussion of the new TLS version 1.3.
■ Email Security: Chapter 19 has been completely rewritten to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of email security. It includes:
— New: discussion of email threats and a comprehensive approach to email security.
— New: discussion of STARTTLS, which provides confidentiality and authentication for SMTP.
12
PREFACE 13
— Revised: treatment of S/MIME has been updated to reflect the latest version 3.2.
— New: discussion of DNSSEC and its role in supporting email security.
— New: discussion of DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) and the use of this approach to enhance security for certificate use in SMTP and S/MIME.
— New: discussion of Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which is the standardized way for a sending domain to identify and assert the mail senders for a given domain.
— Revised: discussion of DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) has been revised.
— New: discussion of Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Confor- mance (DMARC) allows email senders to specify policy on how their mail should be handled, the types of reports that receivers can send back, and the frequency those reports should be sent.
OBJECTIVES
It is the purpose of this book to provide a practical survey of both the principles and practice of cryptography and network security. In the first part of the book, the basic issues to be addressed by a network security capability are explored by providing a tutorial and survey of cryptography and network security technology. The latter part of the book deals with the practice of network security: practical applications that have been implemented and are in use to provide network security.
The subject, and therefore this book, draws on a variety of disciplines. In particular, it is impossible to appreciate the significance of some of the techniques discussed in this book without a basic understanding of number theory and some results from probability theory. Nevertheless, an attempt has been made to make the book self-contained. The book not only presents the basic mathematical results that are needed but provides the reader with an intuitive understanding of those results. Such background material is introduced as needed. This approach helps to motivate the material that is introduced, and the author considers this preferable to simply presenting all of the mathematical material in a lump at the beginning of the book.
SUPPORT OF ACM/IEEE COMPUTER SCIENCE CURRICULA 2013
The book is intended for both academic and professional audiences. As a textbook, it is intended as a one-semester undergraduate course in cryptography and network security for computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering majors. The changes to this edition are intended to provide support of the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013 (CS2013). CS2013 adds Information Assurance and Security (IAS) to the curriculum rec- ommendation as one of the Knowledge Areas in the Computer Science Body of Knowledge. The document states that IAS is now part of the curriculum recommendation because of the critical role of IAS in computer science education. CS2013 divides all course work into three categories: Core-Tier 1 (all topics should be included in the curriculum), Core-Tier-2 (all or almost all topics should be included), and elective (desirable to provide breadth and depth). In the IAS area, CS2013 recommends topics in Fundamental Concepts and Network Security
14 PREFACE
in Tier 1 and Tier 2, and Cryptography topics as elective. This text covers virtually all of the topics listed by CS2013 in these three categories.
The book also serves as a basic reference volume and is suitable for self-study.
PLAN OF THE TEXT
The book is divided into eight parts.
■ Background
■ Symmetric Ciphers
■ Asymmetric Ciphers
■ Cryptographic Data Integrity Algorithms
■ Mutual Trust
■ Network and Internet Security
■ System Security
■ Legal and Ethical Issues
The book includes a number of pedagogic features, including the use of the computer algebra system Sage and numerous figures and tables to clarify the discussions. Each chap- ter includes a list of key words, review questions, homework problems, and suggestions for further reading. The book also includes an extensive glossary, a list of frequently used acronyms, and a bibliography. In addition, a test bank is available to instructors.
INSTRUCTOR SUPPORT MATERIALS
The major goal of this text is to make it as effective a teaching tool for this exciting and fast-moving subject as possible. This goal is reflected both in the structure of the book and in the supporting material. The text is accompanied by the following supplementary material that will aid the instructor:
■ Solutions manual: Solutions to all end-of-chapter Review Questions and Problems.
■ Projects manual: Suggested project assignments for all of the project categories listed below.
■ PowerPoint slides: A set of slides covering all chapters, suitable for use in lecturing.
■ PDF files: Reproductions of all figures and tables from the book.
■ Test bank: A chapter-by-chapter set of questions with a separate file of answers.
■ Sample syllabuses: The text contains more material than can be conveniently covered in one semester. Accordingly, instructors are provided with several sample syllabuses that guide the use of the text within limited time.
All of these support materials are available at the Instructor Resource Center (IRC) for this textbook, which can be reached through the publisher’s Web site www.pearsonglobaleditions.com/stallings. To gain access to the IRC, please contact your local Pearson sales representative.
http://www.pearsonglobaleditions.com/stallings
PREFACE 15
PROJECTS AND OTHER STUDENT EXERCISES
For many instructors, an important component of a cryptography or network security course is a project or set of projects by which the student gets hands-on experience to reinforce concepts from the text. This book provides an unparalleled degree of support, including a projects component in the course. The IRC not only includes guidance on how to assign and structure the projects, but also includes a set of project assignments that covers a broad range of topics from the text:
■ Sage projects: Described in the next section.
■ Hacking project: Exercise designed to illuminate the key issues in intrusion detection and prevention.
■ Block cipher projects: A lab that explores the operation of the AES encryption algo- rithm by tracing its execution, computing one round by hand, and then exploring the various block cipher modes of use. The lab also covers DES. In both cases, an online Java applet is used (or can be downloaded) to execute AES or DES.
■ Lab exercises: A series of projects that involve programming and experimenting with concepts from the book.
■ Research projects: A series of research assignments that instruct the student to research a particular topic on the Internet and write a report.
■ Programming projects: A series of programming projects that cover a broad range of topics and that can be implemented in any suitable language on any platform.
■ Practical security assessments: A set of exercises to examine current infrastructure and practices of an existing organization.
■ Firewall projects: A portable network firewall visualization simulator, together with exercises for teaching the fundamentals of firewalls.
■ Case studies: A set of real-world case studies, including learning objectives, case description, and a series of case discussion questions.
■ Writing assignments: A set of suggested writing assignments, organized by chapter.
■ Reading/report assignments: A list of papers in the literature—one for each chapter— that can be assigned for the student to read and then write a short report.
This diverse set of projects and other student exercises enables the instructor to use the book as one component in a rich and varied learning experience and to tailor a course plan to meet the specific needs of the instructor and students. See Appendix A in this book for details.
THE SAGE COMPUTER ALGEBRA SYSTEM
One of the most important features of this book is the use of Sage for cryptographic examples and homework assignments. Sage is an open-source, multiplatform, freeware package that implements a very powerful, flexible, and easily learned mathematics and computer algebra system. Unlike competing systems (such as Mathematica, Maple, and MATLAB), there are
16 PREFACE
no licensing agreements or fees involved. Thus, Sage can be made available on computers and networks at school, and students can individually download the software to their own personal computers for use at home. Another advantage of using Sage is that students learn a powerful, flexible tool that can be used for virtually any mathematical application, not just cryptography.
The use of Sage can make a significant difference to the teaching of the mathematics of cryptographic algorithms. This book provides a large number of examples of the use of Sage covering many cryptographic concepts in Appendix B, which is included in this book.
Appendix C lists exercises in each of these topic areas to enable the student to gain hands-on experience with cryptographic algorithms. This appendix is available to instruc- tors at the IRC for this book. Appendix C includes a section on how to download and get started with Sage, a section on programming with Sage, and exercises that can be assigned to students in the following categories:
■ Chapter 2—Number Theory and Finite Fields: Euclidean and extended Euclidean algorithms, polynomial arithmetic, GF(24), Euler’s Totient function, Miller–Rabin, fac- toring, modular exponentiation, discrete logarithm, and Chinese remainder theorem.
■ Chapter 3—Classical Encryption: Affine ciphers and the Hill cipher.
■ Chapter 4—Block Ciphers and the Data Encryption Standard: Exercises based on SDES.
■ Chapter 6—Advanced Encryption Standard: Exercises based on SAES.
■ Chapter 8—Pseudorandom Number Generation and Stream Ciphers: Blum Blum Shub, linear congruential generator, and ANSI X9.17 PRNG.
■ Chapter 9—Public-Key Cryptography and RSA: RSA encrypt/decrypt and signing.
■ Chapter 10—Other Public-Key Cryptosystems: Diffie–Hellman, elliptic curve.
■ Chapter 11—Cryptographic Hash Functions: Number-theoretic hash function.
■ Chapter 13—Digital Signatures: DSA.
ONLINE DOCUMENTS FOR STUDENTS
For this new edition, a tremendous amount of original supporting material for students has been made available online.
Purchasing this textbook new also grants the reader six months of access to the Companion Website, which includes the following materials:
■ Online chapters: To limit the size and cost of the book, four chapters of the book are provided in PDF format. This includes three chapters on computer security and one on legal and ethical issues. The chapters are listed in this book’s table of contents.
■ Online appendices: There are numerous interesting topics that support material found in the text but whose inclusion is not warranted in the printed text. A total of 20 online appendices cover these topics for the interested student. The appendices are listed in this book’s table of contents.
PREFACE 17
■ Homework problems and solutions: To aid the student in understanding the material, a separate set of homework problems with solutions are available.
■ Key papers: A number of papers from the professional literature, many hard to find, are provided for further reading.
■ Supporting documents: A variety of other useful documents are referenced in the text and provided online.
■ Sage code: The Sage code from the examples in Appendix B is useful in case the student wants to play around with the examples.
To access the Companion Website, follow the instructions for “digital resources for students” found in the front of this book.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This new edition has benefited from review by a number of people who gave generously of their time and expertise. The following professors reviewed all or a large part of the manuscript: Hossein Beyzavi (Marymount University), Donald F. Costello (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), James Haralambides (Barry University), Anand Seetharam (California State University at Monterey Bay), Marius C. Silaghi (Florida Institute of Technology), Shambhu Upadhyaya (University at Buffalo), Zhengping Wu (California State University at San Bernardino), Liangliang Xiao (Frostburg State University), Seong-Moo (Sam) Yoo (The University of Alabama in Huntsville), and Hong Zhang (Armstrong State University).
Thanks also to the people who provided detailed technical reviews of one or more chapters: Dino M. Amaral, Chris Andrew, Prof. (Dr). C. Annamalai, Andrew Bain, Riccardo Bernardini, Olivier Blazy, Zervopoulou Christina, Maria Christofi, Dhananjoy Dey, Mario Emmanuel, Mike Fikuart, Alexander Fries, Pierpaolo Giacomin, Pedro R. M. Inácio, Daniela Tamy Iwassa, Krzysztof Janowski, Sergey Katsev, Adnan Kilic, Rob Knox, Mina Pourdashty, Yuri Poeluev, Pritesh Prajapati, Venkatesh Ramamoorthy, Andrea Razzini, Rami Rosen, Javier Scodelaro, Jamshid Shokrollahi, Oscar So, and David Tillemans.
In addition, I was fortunate to have reviews of individual topics by “subject-area gurus,” including Jesse Walker of Intel (Intel’s Digital Random Number Generator), Russ Housley of Vigil Security (key wrapping), Joan Daemen (AES), Edward F. Schaefer of Santa Clara University (Simplified AES), Tim Mathews, formerly of RSA Laboratories (S/MIME), Alfred Menezes of the University of Waterloo (elliptic curve cryptography), William Sutton, Editor/Publisher of The Cryptogram (classical encryption), Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University (number theory), Michael Markowitz of Information Security Corporation (SHA and DSS), Don Davis of IBM Internet Security Systems (Kerberos), Steve Kent of BBN Technologies (X.509), and Phil Zimmerman (PGP).
Nikhil Bhargava (IIT Delhi) developed the set of online homework problems and solutions. Dan Shumow of Microsoft and the University of Washington developed all of the Sage examples and assignments in Appendices B and C. Professor Sreekanth Malladi of Dakota State University developed the hacking exercises. Lawrie Brown of the Australian Defence Force Academy provided the AES/DES block cipher projects and the security assessment assignments.
18 PREFACE
Sanjay Rao and Ruben Torres of Purdue University developed the laboratory exercises that appear in the IRC. The following people contributed project assignments that appear in the instructor’s supplement: Henning Schulzrinne (Columbia University); Cetin Kaya Koc (Oregon State University); and David Balenson (Trusted Information Systems and George Washington University). Kim McLaughlin developed the test bank.
Finally, I thank the many people responsible for the publication of this book, all of whom did their usual excellent job. This includes the staff at Pearson, particularly my editor Tracy Johnson, program manager Carole Snyder, and production manager Bob Engelhardt. Thanks also to the marketing and sales staffs at Pearson, without whose efforts this book would not be in front of you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR THE GLOBAL EDITION
Pearson would like to thank and acknowledge Somitra Kumar Sanadhya (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi), and Somanath Tripathy (Indian Institute of Technology Patna) for contributing to the Global Edition, and Anwitaman Datta (Nanyang Technological University Singapore), Atul Kahate (Pune University), Goutam Paul (Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata), and Khyat Sharma for reviewing the Global Edition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. William Stallings has authored 18 titles, and counting revised editions, over 40 books on computer security, computer networking, and computer architecture. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, including the Proceedings of the IEEE, ACM Computing Reviews, and Cryptologia.
He has 13 times received the award for the best Computer Science textbook of the year from the Text and Academic Authors Association.
In over 30 years in the field, he has been a technical contributor, technical manager, and an executive with several high-technology firms. He has designed and implemented both TCP/IP-based and OSI-based protocol suites on a variety of computers and operating systems, ranging from microcomputers to mainframes. As a consultant, he has advised gov- ernment agencies, computer and software vendors, and major users on the design, selection, and use of networking software and products.
He created and maintains the Computer Science Student Resource Site at ComputerScienceStudent.com. This site provides documents and links on a variety of subjects of general interest to computer science students (and professionals). He is a member of the editorial board of Cryptologia, a scholarly journal devoted to all aspects of cryptology.
Dr. Stallings holds a PhD from MIT in computer science and a BS from Notre Dame in electrical engineering.
19
PART ONE: BACKGROUND
CHAPTER
Computer and Network Security Concepts
1.1 Computer Security Concepts
A Definition of Computer Security Examples The Challenges of Computer Security
1.2 The OSI Security Architecture
1.3 Security Attacks
Passive Attacks Active Attacks
1.4 Security Services
Authentication Access Control Data Confidentiality Data Integrity Nonrepudiation Availability Service
1.5 Security Mechanisms
1.6 Fundamental Security Design Principles
1.7 Attack Surfaces and Attack Trees
Attack Surfaces Attack Trees
1.8 A Model for Network Security
1.9 Standards
1.10 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
19
20 CHAPTER 1 / COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
This book focuses on two broad areas: cryptographic algorithms and protocols, which have a broad range of applications; and network and Internet security, which rely heavily on cryptographic techniques.
Cryptographic algorithms and protocols can be grouped into four main areas:
■ Symmetric encryption: Used to conceal the contents of blocks or streams of data of any size, including messages, files, encryption keys, and passwords.
■ Asymmetric encryption: Used to conceal small blocks of data, such as encryp- tion keys and hash function values, which are used in digital signatures.
■ Data integrity algorithms: Used to protect blocks of data, such as messages, from alteration.
■ Authentication protocols: These are schemes based on the use of crypto- graphic algorithms designed to authenticate the identity of entities.
The field of network and Internet security consists of measures to deter, prevent, detect, and correct security violations that involve the transmission of information. That is a broad statement that covers a host of possibilities. To give you a feel for the areas covered in this book, consider the following examples of security violations:
1. User A transmits a file to user B. The file contains sensitive information (e.g., payroll records) that is to be protected from disclosure. User C, who is not authorized to read the file, is able to monitor the transmission and capture a copy of the file during its transmission.
2. A network manager, D, transmits a message to a computer, E, under its man- agement. The message instructs computer E to update an authorization file to include the identities of a number of new users who are to be given access to that computer. User F intercepts the message, alters its contents to add or delete entries, and then forwards the message to computer E, which accepts the mes- sage as coming from manager D and updates its authorization file accordingly.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
◆ Describe the key security requirements of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
◆ Describe the X.800 security architecture for OSI.
◆ Discuss the types of security threats and attacks that must be dealt with and give examples of the types of threats and attacks that apply to differ- ent categories of computer and network assets.
◆ Explain the fundamental security design principles.
◆ Discuss the use of attack surfaces and attack trees.
◆ List and briefly describe key organizations involved in cryptography standards.
1.1 / COMPUTER SECURITY CONCEPTS 21
3. Rather than intercept a message, user F constructs its own message with the desired entries and transmits that message to computer E as if it had come from manager D. Computer E accepts the message as coming from manager D and updates its authorization file accordingly.
4. An employee is fired without warning. The personnel manager sends a mes- sage to a server system to invalidate the employee’s account. When the invali- dation is accomplished, the server is to post a notice to the employee’s file as confirmation of the action. The employee is able to intercept the message and delay it long enough to make a final access to the server to retrieve sensitive information. The message is then forwarded, the action taken, and the confir- mation posted. The employee’s action may go unnoticed for some consider- able time.
5. A message is sent from a customer to a stockbroker with instructions for vari- ous transactions. Subsequently, the investments lose value and the customer denies sending the message.
Although this list by no means exhausts the possible types of network security viola- tions, it illustrates the range of concerns of network security.
1.1 COMPUTER SECURITY CONCEPTS
A Definition of Computer Security
The NIST Computer Security Handbook [NIST95] defines the term computer secu- rity as follows:
Computer Security: The protection afforded to an automated information system in order to attain the applicable objectives of preserving the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of information system resources (includes hardware, software, firmware, information/data, and telecommunications).
This definition introduces three key objectives that are at the heart of com- puter security:
■ Confidentiality: This term covers two related concepts:
Data1 confidentiality: Assures that private or confidential information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized individuals.
Privacy: Assures that individuals control or influence what information re- lated to them may be collected and stored and by whom and to whom that information may be disclosed.
1RFC 4949 defines information as “facts and ideas, which can be represented (encoded) as various forms of data,” and data as “information in a specific physical representation, usually a sequence of symbols that have meaning; especially a representation of information that can be processed or produced by a computer.” Security literature typically does not make much of a distinction, nor does this book.
22 CHAPTER 1 / COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
■ Integrity: This term covers two related concepts:
Data integrity: Assures that information (both stored and in transmit- ted packets) and programs are changed only in a specified and authorized manner.
System integrity: Assures that a system performs its intended function in an unimpaired manner, free from deliberate or inadvertent unauthorized manipulation of the system.
■ Availability: Assures that systems work promptly and service is not denied to authorized users.
These three concepts form what is often referred to as the CIA triad. The three concepts embody the fundamental security objectives for both data and for information and computing services. For example, the NIST standard FIPS 199 (Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems) lists confidentiality, integrity, and availability as the three security objec- tives for information and for information systems. FIPS 199 provides a useful char- acterization of these three objectives in terms of requirements and the definition of a loss of security in each category:
■ Confidentiality: Preserving authorized restrictions on information access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and propri- etary information. A loss of confidentiality is the unauthorized disclosure of information.
■ Integrity: Guarding against improper information modification or destruc- tion, including ensuring information nonrepudiation and authenticity. A loss of integrity is the unauthorized modification or destruction of information.
■ Availability: Ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information. A loss of availability is the disruption of access to or use of information or an information system.
Although the use of the CIA triad to define security objectives is well estab- lished, some in the security field feel that additional concepts are needed to present a complete picture (Figure 1.1). Two of the most commonly mentioned are as follows:
Figure 1.1 Essential Network and Computer Security Requirements
Data and
services
Availability
Integrity
A ccountability
A ut
he nt
ic ity
Co nfid
ent iali
ty
1.1 / COMPUTER SECURITY CONCEPTS 23
■ Authenticity: The property of being genuine and being able to be verified and trusted; confidence in the validity of a transmission, a message, or message originator. This means verifying that users are who they say they are and that each input arriving at the system came from a trusted source.
■ Accountability: The security goal that generates the requirement for actions of an entity to be traced uniquely to that entity. This supports nonrepudia- tion, deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and prevention, and after- action recovery and legal action. Because truly secure systems are not yet an achievable goal, we must be able to trace a security breach to a responsible party. Systems must keep records of their activities to permit later forensic analysis to trace security breaches or to aid in transaction disputes.
Examples
We now provide some examples of applications that illustrate the requirements just enumerated.2 For these examples, we use three levels of impact on organizations or individuals should there be a breach of security (i.e., a loss of confidentiality, integ- rity, or availability). These levels are defined in FIPS PUB 199:
■ Low: The loss could be expected to have a limited adverse effect on organi- zational operations, organizational assets, or individuals. A limited adverse effect means that, for example, the loss of confidentiality, integrity, or avail- ability might (i) cause a degradation in mission capability to an extent and duration that the organization is able to perform its primary functions, but the effectiveness of the functions is noticeably reduced; (ii) result in minor dam- age to organizational assets; (iii) result in minor financial loss; or (iv) result in minor harm to individuals.
■ Moderate: The loss could be expected to have a serious adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals. A serious adverse effect means that, for example, the loss might (i) cause a signifi- cant degradation in mission capability to an extent and duration that the organization is able to perform its primary functions, but the effectiveness of the functions is significantly reduced; (ii) result in significant damage to organizational assets; (iii) result in significant financial loss; or (iv) result in significant harm to individuals that does not involve loss of life or serious, life-threatening injuries.
■ High: The loss could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals. A severe or catastrophic adverse effect means that, for example, the loss might (i) cause a severe degradation in or loss of mission capability to an extent and duration that the organization is not able to perform one or more of its primary functions; (ii) result in major damage to organizational assets; (iii) result in major financial loss; or (iv) result in severe or catastrophic harm to individuals involving loss of life or serious, life-threatening injuries.
2These examples are taken from a security policy document published by the Information Technology Security and Privacy Office at Purdue University.
24 CHAPTER 1 / COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
CONFIDENTIALITY Student grade information is an asset whose confidentiality is considered to be highly important by students. In the United States, the release of such information is regulated by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Grade information should only be available to students, their parents, and employees that require the information to do their job. Student enrollment information may have a moderate confidentiality rating. While still covered by FERPA, this information is seen by more people on a daily basis, is less likely to be targeted than grade information, and results in less damage if disclosed. Directory information, such as lists of students or faculty or departmental lists, may be as- signed a low confidentiality rating or indeed no rating. This information is typically freely available to the public and published on a school’s Web site.
INTEGRITY Several aspects of integrity are illustrated by the example of a hospital patient’s allergy information stored in a database. The doctor should be able to trust that the information is correct and current. Now suppose that an employee (e.g., a nurse) who is authorized to view and update this information deliberately falsifies the data to cause harm to the hospital. The database needs to be restored to a trusted basis quickly, and it should be possible to trace the error back to the person responsible. Patient allergy information is an example of an asset with a high requirement for integrity. Inaccurate information could result in serious harm or death to a patient and expose the hospital to massive liability.
An example of an asset that may be assigned a moderate level of integrity requirement is a Web site that offers a forum to registered users to discuss some specific topic. Either a registered user or a hacker could falsify some entries or deface the Web site. If the forum exists only for the enjoyment of the users, brings in little or no advertising revenue, and is not used for something important such as research, then potential damage is not severe. The Web master may experience some data, financial, and time loss.
An example of a low integrity requirement is an anonymous online poll. Many Web sites, such as news organizations, offer these polls to their users with very few safeguards. However, the inaccuracy and unscientific nature of such polls is well understood.
AVAILABILITY The more critical a component or service, the higher is the level of availability required. Consider a system that provides authentication services for critical systems, applications, and devices. An interruption of service results in the inability for customers to access computing resources and staff to access the re- sources they need to perform critical tasks. The loss of the service translates into a large financial loss in lost employee productivity and potential customer loss.
An example of an asset that would typically be rated as having a moderate availability requirement is a public Web site for a university; the Web site provides information for current and prospective students and donors. Such a site is not a critical component of the university’s information system, but its unavailability will cause some embarrassment.
An online telephone directory lookup application would be classified as a low availability requirement. Although the temporary loss of the application may be an annoyance, there are other ways to access the information, such as a hardcopy directory or the operator.
1.1 / COMPUTER SECURITY CONCEPTS 25
The Challenges of Computer Security
Computer and network security is both fascinating and complex. Some of the reasons follow:
1. Security is not as simple as it might first appear to the novice. The require- ments seem to be straightforward; indeed, most of the major requirements for security services can be given self-explanatory, one-word labels: confidential- ity, authentication, nonrepudiation, or integrity. But the mechanisms used to meet those requirements can be quite complex, and understanding them may involve rather subtle reasoning.
2. In developing a particular security mechanism or algorithm, one must always consider potential attacks on those security features. In many cases, successful attacks are designed by looking at the problem in a completely different way, therefore exploiting an unexpected weakness in the mechanism.
3. Because of point 2, the procedures used to provide particular services are often counterintuitive. Typically, a security mechanism is complex, and it is not obvious from the statement of a particular requirement that such elaborate measures are needed. It is only when the various aspects of the threat are con- sidered that elaborate security mechanisms make sense.
4. Having designed various security mechanisms, it is necessary to decide where to use them. This is true both in terms of physical placement (e.g., at what points in a network are certain security mechanisms needed) and in a logical sense (e.g., at what layer or layers of an architecture such as TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol] should mechanisms be placed).
5. Security mechanisms typically involve more than a particular algorithm or protocol. They also require that participants be in possession of some secret in- formation (e.g., an encryption key), which raises questions about the creation, distribution, and protection of that secret information. There also may be a re- liance on communications protocols whose behavior may complicate the task of developing the security mechanism. For example, if the proper functioning of the security mechanism requires setting time limits on the transit time of a message from sender to receiver, then any protocol or network that introduces variable, unpredictable delays may render such time limits meaningless.
6. Computer and network security is essentially a battle of wits between a per- petrator who tries to find holes and the designer or administrator who tries to close them. The great advantage that the attacker has is that he or she need only find a single weakness, while the designer must find and eliminate all weaknesses to achieve perfect security.
7. There is a natural tendency on the part of users and system managers to per- ceive little benefit from security investment until a security failure occurs.
8. Security requires regular, even constant, monitoring, and this is difficult in today’s short-term, overloaded environment.
9. Security is still too often an afterthought to be incorporated into a system after the design is complete rather than being an integral part of the design process.
26 CHAPTER 1 / COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
10. Many users and even security administrators view strong security as an impediment to efficient and user-friendly operation of an information system or use of information.
The difficulties just enumerated will be encountered in numerous ways as we examine the various security threats and mechanisms throughout this book.
1.2 THE OSI SECURITY ARCHITECTURE
To assess effectively the security needs of an organization and to evaluate and choose various security products and policies, the manager responsible for security needs some systematic way of defining the requirements for security and character- izing the approaches to satisfying those requirements. This is difficult enough in a centralized data processing environment; with the use of local and wide area net- works, the problems are compounded.
ITU-T3 Recommendation X.800, Security Architecture for OSI, defines such a systematic approach.4 The OSI security architecture is useful to managers as a way of organizing the task of providing security. Furthermore, because this architecture was developed as an international standard, computer and communications vendors have developed security features for their products and services that relate to this structured definition of services and mechanisms.
For our purposes, the OSI security architecture provides a useful, if abstract, overview of many of the concepts that this book deals with. The OSI security archi- tecture focuses on security attacks, mechanisms, and services. These can be defined briefly as
■ Security attack: Any action that compromises the security of information owned by an organization.
■ Security mechanism: A process (or a device incorporating such a process) that is designed to detect, prevent, or recover from a security attack.
■ Security service: A processing or communication service that enhances the security of the data processing systems and the information transfers of an organization. The services are intended to counter security attacks, and they make use of one or more security mechanisms to provide the service.
In the literature, the terms threat and attack are commonly used to mean more or less the same thing. Table 1.1 provides definitions taken from RFC 4949, Internet Security Glossary.
3The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is a United Nations-sponsored agency that develops standards, called Recommendations, relating to tele- communications and to open systems interconnection (OSI). 4The OSI security architecture was developed in the context of the OSI protocol architecture, which is described in Appendix L. However, for our purposes in this chapter, an understanding of the OSI proto- col architecture is not required.
1.3 / SECURITY ATTACKS 27
1.3 SECURITY ATTACKS
A useful means of classifying security attacks, used both in X.800 and RFC 4949, is in terms of passive attacks and active attacks (Figure 1.2). A passive attack attempts to learn or make use of information from the system but does not affect system re- sources. An active attack attempts to alter system resources or affect their operation.
Passive Attacks
Passive attacks (Figure 1.2a) are in the nature of eavesdropping on, or monitoring of, transmissions. The goal of the opponent is to obtain information that is being transmitted. Two types of passive attacks are the release of message contents and traffic analysis.
The release of message contents is easily understood. A telephone conver- sation, an electronic mail message, and a transferred file may contain sensitive or confidential information. We would like to prevent an opponent from learning the contents of these transmissions.
A second type of passive attack, traffic analysis, is subtler. Suppose that we had a way of masking the contents of messages or other information traffic so that opponents, even if they captured the message, could not extract the information from the message. The common technique for masking contents is encryption. If we had encryption protection in place, an opponent might still be able to observe the pattern of these messages. The opponent could determine the location and identity of communicating hosts and could observe the frequency and length of messages being exchanged. This information might be useful in guessing the nature of the communication that was taking place.
Passive attacks are very difficult to detect, because they do not involve any alteration of the data. Typically, the message traffic is sent and received in an appar- ently normal fashion, and neither the sender nor receiver is aware that a third party has read the messages or observed the traffic pattern. However, it is feasible to pre- vent the success of these attacks, usually by means of encryption. Thus, the empha- sis in dealing with passive attacks is on prevention rather than detection.
Active Attacks
Active attacks (Figure 1.2b) involve some modification of the data stream or the creation of a false stream and can be subdivided into four categories: masquerade, replay, modification of messages, and denial of service.
Threat A potential for violation of security, which exists when there is a circumstance, capability, action, or event that could breach security and cause harm. That is, a threat is a possible danger that might exploit a vulnerability.
Attack An assault on system security that derives from an intelligent threat; that is, an intelligent act that is a deliberate attempt (especially in the sense of a method or technique) to evade security services and violate the security policy of a system.
Table 1.1 Threats and Attacks (RFC 4949)
28 CHAPTER 1 / COMPUTER AND NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
A masquerade takes place when one entity pretends to be a different entity (path 2 of Figure 1.2b is active). A masquerade attack usually includes one of the other forms of active attack. For example, authentication sequences can be captured and replayed after a valid authentication sequence has taken place, thus enabling an authorized entity with few privileges to obtain extra privileges by impersonating an entity that has those privileges.
Replay involves the passive capture of a data unit and its subsequent retrans- mission to produce an unauthorized effect (paths 1, 2, and 3 active).
Modification of messages simply means that some portion of a legitimate mes- sage is altered, or that messages are delayed or reordered, to produce an unauthor- ized effect (paths 1 and 2 active). For example, a message meaning “Allow John Smith to read confidential file accounts” is modified to mean “Allow Fred Brown to read confidential file accounts.