EAI Endorsed Transactions on Security and Safety

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Sencun Zhu and David Mohaisen

Aims & Scope
Editors in Chief

Growing threats and increasingly also failures due to complexity may compromise the security and resilience of network and service infrastructures. Applications and services require security of data handling and we need new security architectures and scalable and interoperable security policies for this. There is a need to guarantee end-to-end security in data communications and storage, including identity management and authentication.

Moreover, we need technology to enable network security monitoring and tracing and to assess the trustworthiness of infrastructures and services. It must ensure the protection of personal data and privacy and to properly assign liability and risks, together with the appropriate governance models needed to do so. Furthermore this is applied to the settings of Public Safety in general.

Sencun Zhu¹

Dr. Sencun Zhu is an associate professor of Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU). He received the B.S. degree in precision instruments from Tsinghua University, , the M.S. degree in signal processing from the University of Science and Technology of China, Graduate School at Beijing, and the Ph.D. degree in information technology from George Mason University in 1996, 1999, and 2004, respectively. His research interests include wireless and mobile security, software and network security, fraud detection, and user online safety and privacy. . More details of his research can be found in http://www.cse.psu.edu/~sxz16/.

David Mohaisen²

University of Central Florida, USA

1: Department of Computer Science and Engineering and College of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU)
2: University of Central Florida, USA

Recently Published
Most Popular

CLETer: A Character-level Evasion Technique Against Deep Learning DGA Classifiers
Appears in:
sesa 21(24): e5

Authors:
Wanping Liu, Zhoulan Zhang, Cheng Huang, Yong Fang

Published:
18th Feb 2021

Abstract:
The detection of pseudo-random domain names generated by Domain Generation Algorithms (DGAs) is one of the effective ways to find botnets. Study on the vulnerability of deep learning models to adversarial attacks can enhance the robustness of DGA detection mechanism. This paper proposes CLETer, an …The detection of pseudo-random domain names generated by Domain Generation Algorithms (DGAs) is one of the effective ways to find botnets. Study on the vulnerability of deep learning models to adversarial attacks can enhance the robustness of DGA detection mechanism. This paper proposes CLETer, an improved DGA that provides a character-level evasion technique against state-of-the-art DGA classifiers. Based on existing DGA domain names, CLETer can intelligently generate adversarial examples by quantifying the influence of every character to the classification result and then changing the important characters. Those improved domain names can easily evade being detected and show good transferability. The experimental results demonstrate that when modifying only two characters, CLETer can effectively lower the LSTM classifier’s recall from 99.76% to 1.29% and drop the CNN classifier’s recall from 99.36% to 3.64%. It is proved that adversarial retraining is a viable defense strategy to CLETer.
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Authenticating Video Feeds using Electric Network Frequency Estimation at the Edge
Appears in:
sesa 21(24): e4

Authors:
Deeraj Nagothu, Yu Chen, Alexander Aved, Erik Blasch

Published:
4th Feb 2021

Abstract:
Large scale Internet of Video Things (IoVT) supports situation awareness for smart cities; however, the rapid development in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies enables fake video/audio streams and doctored images to fool smart city security operators. Authenticating visual/audi…Large scale Internet of Video Things (IoVT) supports situation awareness for smart cities; however, the rapid development in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies enables fake video/audio streams and doctored images to fool smart city security operators. Authenticating visual/audio feeds becomes essential for safety and security, from which an Electric Network Frequency (ENF) signal collected from the power grid is a prominent authentication mechanism. This paper proposes an ENF-based Video Authentication method using steady Superpixels (EVAS). Video superpixels group the pixels with uniform intensities and textures to eliminate the impacts from the fluctuations in the ENF estimation. An extensive experimental study validated the effectiveness of the EVAS system. Aiming at the environments with interconnected surveillance camera systems at the edge powered by an electricity grid, the proposed EVAS system achieved the design goal of detecting dissimilarities in the image sequences.
more »
Toward A Network-Assisted Approach for Effective Ransomware Detection
Appears in:
sesa 21(24): e3

Authors:
Tianrou Xia, Yuanyi Sun, Sencun Zhu, Zeeshan Rasheed, Khurram Shafique

Published:
28th Jan 2021

Abstract:
Ransomware is one kind of malware using cryptography to prevent victims from normal use of their computers. As a result, victims lose the access to their files and desktops unless they pay the ransom to the attackers. By the end of 2019, ransomware attack had caused…Ransomware is one kind of malware using cryptography to prevent victims from normal use of their computers. As a result, victims lose the access to their files and desktops unless they pay the ransom to the attackers. By the end of 2019, ransomware attack had caused more than 10 billion dollars of financial loss to enterprises and individuals. In this work, we propose a Network-Assisted Approach (NAA), which contains local detection and network-level detection, to help user determine whether a machine has been infected by ransomware. To evaluate its performance, we built 100 containers in Docker to simulate network scenarios. A hybrid ransomware sample which is close to real-world ransomware is deployed on stimulative infected machines. The experiment results show that our network-level detection mechanisms are separately applicable to WAN and LAN scenarios for ransomware detection.
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Mapping of the Security Requirements of GDPR and NISD
Appears in:
sesa 21(24): e2

Authors:
Najmudin Saqib, Vasileios Germanos, Wen Zeng, Leandros Maglaras

Published:
3rd Sep 2020

Abstract:
Privacy and information security have consistently been a priority for the European Union lawmaker. This paper investigates the security requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on security of network and information systems (NISD). This …Privacy and information security have consistently been a priority for the European Union lawmaker. This paper investigates the security requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on security of network and information systems (NISD). This investigation incorporates what is unique about the NISD; how it overlaps with existing frameworks; and how security requirements in the GDPR influence the NISD. This mapping of requirements can help businesses and organizations to distinguish possible difficulties that may experience while conforming to GDPR and NISD, and help them create a consistent cybersecurity framework and structure new security plans.
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Caching Techniques for Security Metadata in Integrity-Protected Fabric-Attached Memories
Appears in:
sesa 21(24): e1

Authors:
Mazen Alwadi, Amro Awad

Published:
11th Aug 2020

Abstract:
The constant need for larger memories and the diversity of workloads have driving the system vendors away from the conventional processor-centric architecture into a memory-centric architecture. Memorycentric architecture, allows multiple computing nodes to connect to a huge shared memory pool and…The constant need for larger memories and the diversity of workloads have driving the system vendors
away from the conventional processor-centric architecture into a memory-centric architecture. Memorycentric architecture, allows multiple computing nodes to connect to a huge shared memory pool and
access it directly. To improve the performance, each node uses a small local memory to cache the data.
These architectures introduces several problems when memory encryption and integrity verification are
implemented. For instance, using a single integrity tree to protect both memories can introduce unnecessary
overheads. Therefore, we propose Split-Tree, which implements two separate integrity tree for each memory.
Later, we analyze the system performance, and the security metadata caches behavior when separate trees
are used. We use the gathered insights to improve the security metadata caching for the separate trees and
ultimately improve the system performance.
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Self-Controllable Super-Resolution Deep Learning Framework for Surveillance Drones in Security Applications
Appears in:
sesa 20(23): e5

Authors:
Soohyun Park, Yeongeun Kang, Jeman Park, Joongheon Kim

Published:
30th Jun 2020

Abstract:
This paper proposes a self-controllable super-resolution adaptation algorithm in drone platforms. The drone platforms are generally used for surveillance in target network areas. Thus, super-resolution algorithms which are for enhancing surveillance video quality are essential. In surveillance dr…This paper proposes a self-controllable super-resolution adaptation algorithm in drone platforms. The drone
platforms are generally used for surveillance in target network areas. Thus, super-resolution algorithms which
are for enhancing surveillance video quality are essential. In surveillance drone platforms, generating video
streams obtained by CCTV cameras is not static, because the cameras record the video when abnormal objects
are detected. The generation of streams is not predictable, therefore, this unpredictable situation can be
harmful to reliable surveillance monitoring. To handle this problem, the proposed algorithm designs superresolution adaptation. With the proposed algorithm, the shallow model which is fast and low-performance
will be used if the stream queue is near overflow. On the other hand, the deep model which is highperformance and slow will be used if the queue is idle to improve the performance of super-resolution.
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Vul-Mirror: A Few-Shot Learning Method for Discovering Vulnerable Code Clone
Appears in:
sesa 20(23): e4

Authors:
Yuan He, Wenjie Wang, Hongyu Sun, Yuqing Zhang

Published:
10th Jun 2020

Abstract:
It is quite common for reusing code in soft development, which may lead to the wide spread of the vulnerability, so automatic detection of vulnerable code clone is becoming more and more important. However, the existing solutions either cannot automatically extract the characteristics of the vuln…It is quite common for reusing code in soft development, which may lead to the wide spread of the vulnerability, so
automatic detection of vulnerable code clone is becoming more and more important. However, the existing solutions either
cannot automatically extract the characteristics of the vulnerable codes or cannot select different algorithms according to
different codes, which results in low detection accuracy. In this paper, we consider the identification of vulnerable code
clone as a code recognition task and propose a method named Vul-Mirror based on a few-shot learning model for
discovering clone vulnerable codes. It can not only automatically extract features of vulnerabilities, but also use the
network to measure similarity. The results of experiments on open-source projects of five operating systems show that the
accuracy of Vul-Mirror is 95.7%, and its performance is better than the state-of-the-art methods.
more »
Editorial
Appears in:
sesa 20(22): e1

Authors:
David Mohaisen, Sencun Zhu

Published:
18th May 2020

Abstract:
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Minor Privacy Protection by Real-time Children Identification and Face Scrambling at the Edge
Appears in:
sesa 20(23): e3

Authors:
Alem Fitwi, Meng Yuan, Seyed Yahya Nikouei, Yu Chen

Published:
14th May 2020

Abstract:
The collection of personal information about individuals, including the minor members of a family, by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras creates a lot of privacy concerns. Revealing children’s identiﬁcations or activities may compromise their well-being. In this paper, we propose a novel Mino…The collection of personal information about individuals, including the minor members of a family, by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras creates a lot of privacy concerns. Revealing children’s identiﬁcations or activities may compromise their well-being. In this paper, we propose a novel Minor Privacy protection solution using Real-time video processing at the Edge (MiPRE). It is reﬁned to be feasible and accurate to identify minors and apply appropriate privacy-preserving measures accordingly. State of the art deep learning architectures are modiﬁed and repurposed to maximize the accuracy of MiPRE. A pipeline extracts face from the input frames and identify minors. Then, a lightweight algorithm scrambles the faces of the minors to anonymize them. Over 20,000 labeled sample points collected from open sources are used for classiﬁcation. The quantitative experimental results show the superiority of MiPRE with an accuracy of 92.1% with near real-time performance.
more »
Identify Vulnerability Fix Commits Automatically Using Hierarchical Attention Network
Appears in:
sesa 20(23): e2

Authors:
Mingxin Sun, Wenjie Wang, Hantao Feng, Hongu Sun, Yuqing Zhang

Published:
12th May 2020

Abstract:
The application of machine learning and deep learning in the ﬁeld of vulnerability detection is a hot topic in security research, but currently it faces the problem of lack of dataset. Considering vulnerable code can be obtained from vulnerability ﬁx commits, we propose an automatic vulnerability c…The application of machine learning and deep learning in the ﬁeld of vulnerability detection is a hot topic in security research, but currently it faces the problem of lack of dataset. Considering vulnerable code can be obtained from vulnerability ﬁx commits, we propose an automatic vulnerability commit identiﬁcation tool based on hierarchical attention network (HAN) to expand existing vulnerability dataset. HAN can model the input data at the word and sentence levels respectively and pay attention to the changes in the characteristics of diﬀerent words in diﬀerent categories, which improves the classiﬁcation performance. Experimental results show that the accuracy and F1 of our model both achieve 92%. Through the vulnerability ﬁx commit, researchers can quickly locate the vulnerable code. And extracting vulnerable code from open-source software can eﬀectively expand the current dataset due to the enormous number of open-source software.
more »

Mouse Underlaying: Global Key and Mouse Listener Based on an Almost Invisible Window with Local Listeners and Sophisticated Focus
Appears in:
sesa 18(15): e5

Author:
Tim Niklas Witte

Downloads:
13277

Abstract:
Keyloggers are serious threats for computer users both private and commercial. If an attacker is capable of installing this malware on the victim’s machine then he or she is able to monitor keystrokes of a user. This keylog contains login information. As a consequence, protection and detection tech…Keyloggers are serious threats for computer users both private and commercial. If an attacker is capable of installing this malware on the victim’s machine then he or she is able to monitor keystrokes of a user. This keylog contains login information. As a consequence, protection and detection techniques against keyloggers become increasingly better. This article presents the method of Mouse Underlaying for creating a new kind of software based keyloggers. This method is implemented in Java for testing countermeasures concerning keylogger protection, virtual keyboard, signatures and behavior detection by anti-virus programs. Products of various manufacturers are used for demonstration purposes. All of them failed without an exception. In addition, the reasons why these products failed are analyzed, and moreover, measures against Mouse Underlaying are developed based on the demonstration results.
more »
A Deep Learning Approach for Network Intrusion Detection System
Appears in:
sesa 16(9): e2

Authors:
Ahmad Javaid, Quamar Niyaz, Weiqing Sun, Mansoor Alam

Downloads:
10024

Abstract:
A Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) helps system administrators to detect network security breaches in their organizations. However, many challenges arise while developing a flexible and efficient NIDS for unforeseen and unpredictable attacks. We propose a deep learning based approach for…A Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) helps system administrators to detect network security breaches in
their organizations. However, many challenges arise while
developing a flexible and efficient NIDS for unforeseen and unpredictable attacks. We propose a deep learning based approach for developing such an efficient and flexible NIDS.
We use Self-taught Learning (STL), a deep learning based technique, on NSL-KDD - a benchmark dataset for network
intrusion. We present the performance of our approach and compare it with a few previous work. Compared metrics include accuracy, precision, recall, and f-measure values.
more »
Threats, Countermeasures and Attribution of Cyber Attacks on Critical Infrastructures
Appears in:
sesa 18(16): e1

Authors:
Leandros Maglaras, Mohamed Amine Ferrag, Abdelouahid Derhab, Mithun Mukherjee, Helge Janicke, Stylianos Rallis

Downloads:
3874

Abstract:
As Critical National Infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable to cyber attacks, their protection becomes a signiﬁcant issue for any organization as well as a nation. Moreover, the ability to attribute is a vital element of avoiding impunity in cyberspace. In this article, we present main threat…As Critical National Infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable to cyber attacks, their protection becomes a signiﬁcant issue for any organization as well as a nation. Moreover, the ability to attribute is a vital element of avoiding impunity in cyberspace. In this article, we present main threats to critical infrastructures along with protective measures that one nation can take, and which are classiﬁed according to legal, technical, organizational, capacity building, and cooperation aspects. Finally we provide an overview of current methods and practices regarding cyber attribution and cyber peace keeping.
more »
Threat Modeling for Cloud Infrastructures
Appears in:
sesa 18(17): e5

Authors:
Nawaf Alhebaishi, Lingyu Wang, Anoop Singhal

Downloads:
2033

Abstract:
Today’s businesses are increasingly relying on the cloud as an alternative IT solution due to its ﬂexibility and lower cost. Compared to traditional enterprise networks, a cloud infrastructure is typically much larger and more complex. Understanding the potential security threats in such infrastruc…Today’s businesses are increasingly relying on the cloud as an alternative IT solution due to its ﬂexibility and lower cost. Compared to traditional enterprise networks, a cloud infrastructure is typically much larger and more complex. Understanding the potential security threats in such infrastructures is naturally more challenging than in traditional networks. This is evidenced by the fact that there are limited eﬀorts on threat modeling for cloud infrastructures. In this paper, we conduct comprehensive threat modeling exercises based on two representative cloud infrastructures using several popular threat modeling methods, including attack surface, attack trees, attack graphs, and security metrics based on attack trees and attack graphs, respectively. Those threat modeling eﬀorts may provide cloud providers useful lessons toward better understanding and improving the security of their cloud infrastructures. In addition, we show how hardening solution can be applied based on the threat models and security metrics through extended exercises. Such results may not only beneﬁt the cloud provider but also embed more conﬁdence in cloud tenants by providing them a clearer picture of the potential threats and mitigation solutions.
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Reviewing the book “Principles of Cyber-physical Systems” from a security perspective
Appears in:
sesa 15(4): e6

Authors:
Minghui Zhu, Peng Liu

Downloads:
1915

Abstract:
This is a review of the book “Principles of Cyber-physical Systems” authored by Rajeev Alur and published by the MIT Press at 2015.This is a review of the book “Principles of Cyber-physical Systems” authored by Rajeev Alur and published by the MIT Press at 2015.
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Evaluation of Cryptography Usage in Android Applications
Appears in:
sesa 16(9): e4

Authors:
Alexia Chatzikonstantinou, Christoforos Ntantogian, Georgios Karopoulos, Christos Xenakis

Downloads:
1876

Abstract:
Mobile application developers are using cryptography in their products to protect sensitive data like passwords, short messages, documents etc. In this paper, we study whether cryptography and related techniques are employed in a proper way, in order to protect these private data. To this end, we d…Mobile application developers are using cryptography in their products to protect sensitive data like passwords, short messages, documents etc. In this paper, we study whether cryptography and related techniques are employed in a proper way, in order to protect these private data. To this end, we downloaded 49 Android applications from the Google Play marketplace and performed static and dynamic analysis in an attempt to detect possible cryptographic misuses. The results showed that 87.8% of the applications present some kind of misuse, while for the rest of them no cryptography usage was detected during the analysis. Finally, we suggest countermeasures, mainly intended for developers, to alleviate the issues identified by the analysis.
more »
A Deep Learning Based DDoS Detection System in Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Appears in:
sesa 17(12): e2

Authors:
Quamar Niyaz, Weiqing Sun, Ahmad Y. Javaid

Downloads:
1598

Abstract:
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is one of the most prevalent attacks that an organizational network infrastructure comes across nowadays. Poor network management, low-priced Internet subscriptions, and readily available attack tools can be attributed to their rise. The recently emerged softwar…Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is one of the most prevalent attacks that an organizational network infrastructure comes across nowadays. Poor network management, low-priced Internet subscriptions, and readily available attack tools can be attributed to their rise. The recently emerged software-defined networking (SDN) and deep learning (DL) concepts promise to revolutionize their respective domains. SDN keeps the global view of the entire managed the network from a single point, i.e., the controller, thus making the network management easier. DL-based approaches improve feature extraction/reduction from a high-dimensional dataset such as network traffic headers. This work proposes a deep learning based multi-vector DDoS detection system in an SDN environment. The detection system is implemented as a network application on top of the SDN controller and can monitor the managed network traÿc. Performance evaluation is based on different metrics by applying the system on traÿc traces collected from different scenarios. A high accuracy with low false-positive rate is observed in attack detection for the proposed system.
more »
A V2X Message Evaluation Methodology and Cross-Domain Modelling of Safety Applications in V2X-enabled E/E-Architectures
Appears in:
sesa 16(8): e1

Authors:
Harald Bucher, Marius-Florin Buciuman, Alexander Klimm, Oliver Sander, Jürgen Becker

Downloads:
1548

Abstract:
The introduction of Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) enables great potential for improving road traffic flow and especially active safety applications such as cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). Such applications not only rely on continuous broadcast of vehicle state information (beacons)…The introduction of Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) enables great potential for improving road traffic flow and especially active safety applications such as cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). Such applications not only rely on continuous broadcast of vehicle state information (beacons) of all vehicles, but also have strict real-time requirements. Regarding automotive E/E architectures this continuous broadcasting adds heavy internal E/E data traffic that needs to be processed in real-time by Electronic Control Units (ECUs).
In this work we address this issue by proposing a novel cluster-based message evaluation methodology to significantly reduce internal E/E network traffic by discarding irrelevant messages. The approach is only depending on information received over beacons. It combines a vehicle clustering strategy as well as network and vehicle state monitoring capabilities in order to correctly evaluate messages under real-time constraints. The proposed methodology is modeled inside an abstract ECU. It is evaluated by simulating a model-based CACC application under different traffic scenarios. It is shown that a significant reduction of messages is achievable, while still guaranteeing accident-free behavior of CACC.
more »
ITFComp: A Compression Algorithm for ARM Architecture Instruction Trace Files
Appears in:
sesa 16(8): e2

Authors:
Mohammad Qasem, Lukas Pustina

Downloads:
1389

Abstract:
Testing the performance of a new computational component is costly due to the need of prototyping different setups. Therefore, trace driven hardware simulations are used. Instruction Trace Files (ITFs) are files containing traces of executed instructions in a program's run and are used as an input …Testing the performance of a new computational component is costly due to the need of prototyping different setups. Therefore, trace driven hardware simulations are used. Instruction Trace Files (ITFs) are files containing traces of executed instructions in a program's run and are used as an input for hardware simulations. ITFs tend to be large in size, causing a storage challenge. Many trace reduction techniques exist to deal with the ITFs' storage challenge. In this paper we introduce ITFComp, a compression algorithm that combines general purpose compression methods with knowledge about ARM architecture ITFs' structure to reduce their size. ITFComp also works on compressing data memory addresses accessed by instructions within ITFs to further reduce an ITF size. Results show a reduction of 600 times on average when combined with LZMA compression algorithm. This reduction is 4 times better than when using LZMA alone, and 10 times better than when using DEFLATE. ITFComp introduces a negligible overhead in the decompression time (less than 1%).
more »
WG-8: A Lightweight Stream Cipher for Resource-Constrained Smart Devices
Appears in:
sesa 15(3): e4

Authors:
Xinxin Fan, Kalikinkar Mandal, Guang Gong

Downloads:
1340

Abstract:
Lightweight cryptographic primitives are essential for securing pervasive embedded devices like RFID tags, smart cards, and wireless sensor nodes. In this paper, we present a lightweight stream cipher WG-8, which is tailored from the well-known Welch-Gong (WG) stream cipher family, for resource-c…Lightweight cryptographic primitives are essential for securing pervasive embedded devices like RFID tags,
smart cards, and wireless sensor nodes. In this paper, we present a lightweight stream cipher WG-8, which is
tailored from the well-known Welch-Gong (WG) stream cipher family, for resource-constrained devices. WG-8
inherits the good randomness and cryptographic properties of the WG stream cipher family and is resistant to
the most common attacks against stream ciphers. The software implementations of the WG-8 stream cipher on
two popular low-power microcontrollers as well as the extensive comparison with other lightweight cryptography
implementations highlight that in the context of securing lightweight embedded applications WG-8 has favorable
performance and low energy consumption.
more »

Publisher: EAI
ISSN: 2032-9393
Number of Volumes: 7

Last Published: 2021-03-02

EAI Endorsed Transactions on Security and Safety

Sencun Zhu1

David Mohaisen2

Sencun Zhu¹

David Mohaisen²