Cloud Computing Security

Agenda

• Cloud Computing Security

 Computer Security
 Computer Security Services
 Cloud Computing Security Issues
 Dangers and Vulnerabilities
 Attackers
 Threats , Concerns, Assets
 Cloud Computing Security Domains
 Solutions and Recommendations
 Security Services

Confidentiality

Availability Integrity
4

Confidentiality

Authorized to Know
5

Integrity

Data Has Not Been

Tampered With
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Availability

Data Never Lost

Machine Never Fail
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Cloud Security !! A major Concern

• Security concerns arising because both customer data and

program are residing at Provider Premises.

Customer
Data

Customer
Customer
Code

Provider Premises
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Security Is the Major Challenge

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Why Cloud Computing brings new
threats?
Traditional system security mostly means keeping
bad guys out

The attacker needs to either compromise the

auth/access control system, or impersonate existing
users
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Why Cloud Computing brings new
threats?

• Cloud Security problems are coming from :

 Loss of control
 Lack of trust
 Multi-tenancy

• These problems exist mainly in 3rd party

management models
 Self-managed clouds still have security issues, but not
related to above
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Why Cloud Computing brings new
threats?
Consumer’s loss of control

 Data, applications, resources are located with provider

 User identity management is handled by the cloud

 User access control rules, security policies and

enforcement are managed by the cloud provider

 Consumer relies on provider to ensure

●
Data security and privacy
●
Resource availability
●
Monitoring and repairing of services/resources
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Why Cloud Computing brings new
threats?
Multi-tenancy :

Multiple independent users share the same physical

infrastructure

So, an attacker can legitimately be in the same

physical machine as the target
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Who is the attacker?

Insider?
• Malicious employees at client
• Malicious employees at Cloud
provider
• Cloud provider itself

Outsider?
• Intruders
• Network attackers?
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Attacker Capability: Malicious
Insiders

• At client
 Learn passwords/authentication information
 Gain control of the VMs

• At cloud provider
 Log client communication
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Attacker Capability: Cloud Provider

• What?

 Can read unencrypted data

 Can possibly peek into VMs, or make copies of VMs

 Can monitor network communication, application patterns

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Attacker Capability: Outside
attacker
• What?

 Listen to network traffic (passive)

 Insert malicious traffic (active)

 Probe cloud structure (active)

 Launch DoS
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Challenges for the attacker

How to find out where the target is located

How to be co-located with the target in the same

(physical) machine

How to gather information about the target

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Threats
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Organizing the threats using
STRIDE
• Spoofing identity
●
One person or program successfully pose as another by falsifying
data, thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage

• Tampering with data

• Repudiation
●
To repudiate means to deny

• Information disclosure

• Denial of service

• Elevation of privilege
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Security Issues from Virtualization

• Instance Isolation: ensuring that different instances running on

the same physical machine are isolated from each other.

• Control of Administrator on Host O/s and Guest o/s.

• Current VMs do not offer perfect isolation: Many bugs have
been found in all popular VMMs that allow to escape from
VM!

• Virtual machine monitor should be ‘root secure’,

meaning that no level of privilege within the
virtualized guest environment permits interference
with the host system.
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Streamlined Security Analysis
Process
• Identify Assets

 Which assets are we trying to protect?

 What properties of these assets must be maintained?

• Identify Threats

 What attacks can be mounted?

 What other threats are there (natural disasters, etc.)?

• Identify Countermeasures

 How can we counter those attacks?

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Legal and Regulatory Issues

• Threats
 Laws and regulations may prevent cloud computing
 Requirements to retain control
 Certification requirements not met by provider
 Geographical limitations – EU Data Privacy
●
New locations may trigger new laws and regulations

• Countermeasures
 Evaluate legal issues
 Require provider compliance with laws and regulations
 Restrict geography as needed
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Integrating Provider and Customer
Security

• Threat
 Disconnected provider and customer security systems
 Fired employee retains access to cloud
 Misbehavior in cloud not reported to customer

• Countermeasures
 At least, integrate identity management
 Consistent access controls
 Better, integrate monitoring and notifications
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Evaluate the Asset

• How would we be harmed if


The asset became widely public & widely distributed?

An employee of our cloud provider accessed the asset?

The process of function were manipulated by an outsider?

The process or function failed to provide expected results?

The info/data was unexpectedly changed?

The asset were unavailable for a period of time?
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Map Asset to Models

• 4 Cloud Models
 Public
 Private (internal, external)
 Community
●
multi-tenant infrastructure that is shared among
several organizations from a specific group with
common computing concerns.
 Hybrid

• Which cloud model addresses your security

concerns?
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Legal
• Both parties must understand each other’s roles

• Provider must save primary and secondary (logs)

data

• Where is the data stored?

 laws for cross border data flows

• Plan for unexpected contract termination and

orderly return or secure disposal of assets

• You should ensure you retain ownership of your

data in its original form
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Compliance & Audit

• Right to Audit clause

• Analyze compliance scope

• Regulatory impact on data security

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Portability, Interoperability

• When you have to switch cloud providers

• Contract price increase

• Provider service shutdown

• Decrease in service quality

• Business dispute
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Incident Response

l Cloud apps aren’t always designed with data

integrity, security in mind

 Provider keep app, firewall, IDS logs?

 Provider deliver snapshots of your virtual

environment?
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Identity and Access Mgt

• Determine how provider handles:

 Provisioning, deprovisioning
 Authentication
 Federation
 Authorization, user profile mgt
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Virtualization

• What type of virtualization is used by the provider?

• What 3rd party security technology augments the

virtual OS?

• Which controls protect admin interfaces exposed

to users?