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Security Challenges in Cloud Computing

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 Security Challenges in Cloud Computing
L. Ertaul1, S. Singhal2, and G. Saldamli3
1
Mathematics and Computer Science, CSU East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA
2
Mathematics and Computer Science, CSU East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA
3
MIS, Bogazici University, Istanbul, TURKEY

example is the Google App Engine, a service that lets

Abstract - Cloud Computing is one of the biggest buzzwords
developer to write programs to run them on Google’s
in the computer world these days. It allows resource sharing
infrastructure [3].
that includes software, platform and infrastructure by means
of virtualization. Virtualization is the core technology behind
The third and final type of cloud computing is known as
cloud resource sharing. This environment strives to be
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). This service basically
dynamic, reliable, and customizable with a guaranteed
delivers virtual machine images as a service and the machine
quality of service. Security is as much of an issue in the cloud
can contain whatever the developers want [3]. Instead of
as it is anywhere else. Different people share different point
purchasing servers, software, data center resources, network
of view on cloud computing. Some believe it is unsafe to use
equipment, and the expertise to operate them, customers can
cloud. Cloud vendors go out of their way to ensure security.
buy these resources as an outsourced service delivered
This paper investigates few major security issues with cloud
through the network cloud [2]. The consumer can
computing and the existing counter measures to those
automatically grow or shrink the number of virtual machines
security challenges in the world of cloud computing..
running at any given time to accommodate the changes in
their requirement. For example, host firewalls [1] [2] [3].
Keywords: Cloud Computing Security, Distributed
Networks Security, Network Security
There are different kinds of cloud deployment models
available. We will discuss three major types of cloud. The
first one is Private cloud. This is also known as internal
1 Introduction cloud.
Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of This paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we
configurable computing resources that can be rapidly briefly describe the cloud computing architecture. In section
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or 3, we briefly describe the applications of cloud computing. In
service provider interaction [1][4][5]. Typically there are section 4, we discuss the major security challenges in cloud
three types of resources that can be provisioned and computing environment and their existing counter measures.
consumed using cloud: software-as-a-service, platform-as-a- In section 5, we briefly discuss the cloud related working
service, and infrastructure-as-a-service [1][2][3][5]. groups. In section 6, we discuss the security standards in
cloud computing. Finally, in section 7, we conclude.
Cloud computing services themselves fall into three
major categories. The first type of cloud computing service is 2 Cloud Computing Architecture
known as Software-as-a-service (SAAS). This service
provides capability to the service subscribers to access Cloud computing system is divided into two sections:
provider’s software applications running on a cloud the front end and the back end. Theses two ends connect to
infrastructure. The service providers manage and control the each other usually through Internet. The front end is the user
application. Customer does not have to own the software but side and back end is the “cloud” section of the system. The
instead only pay to use it through a web API [1] [2]. For front end includes the client’s computer and the application
example, Google Docs relies on JAVA Script, which runs in required to access the cloud computing system. As shown in
the Web browser [3]. figure 1, on the back end of the system are the various
computers, servers and data storage systems that create the
The second type of cloud service is called Platform-as- “cloud” of computing services [2][5][6]. A central server
a-service (PaaS). It is another application delivery model. administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands
PaaS lets the consumer to deploy their applications on the to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules
providers cloud infrastructure using programming languages called protocols and uses a special kind of software called
and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not middleware [2][5].
have to manage the underlying cloud infrastructure but has
control over the deployed application [1] [2]. A recent
 - Clients will be able to access their applications and data at
any time from anywhere using any computer linked to
Internet [6].
- Traditionally, Organizations that rely on computers for their
operations have to buy all the required software or software
licenses for every employee. Cloud computing system gives
an option to these organizations to get access to all the
required computer applications without even buying those
applications. Instead, company can pay a pay-per-use fee to a
cloud service provider [4] [6].
Figure 1. High-Level Cloud Middleware Architecture
Example - Cloud computing system will reduce the hardware costs on
client side. User will not have to buy the computer with most
Cloud middleware also referred to as cloud OS, is the memory, nor has he to buy the large hard drive to store his
major system that manages and controls services. data. Cloud system will take care of this client’s need. Client
Middleware allows networked computers to communicate just have to buy a computer terminal with a monitor, input
with each other [6]. Google App Engine and Amazon EC2/S3 devices with just enough processing power to run the
are examples of cloud middleware [20]. An Application middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system
Programming Interface (APIs) for applications, acquisition of [4][6][[18].
resources such as computing power and storage, and machine - In most of the companies servers and digital storage devices
image management must be available to make applications take up a huge space. Some companies do not have a large
suitable for network clouds [2][5][13]. physical apace available on-site so they rent space to store
their servers and databases. Cloud computing system gives
In a simplified vision of the cloud computing these companies an option to store their data on someone
architecture, as shown in figure 2, first of all, Client sends else’s (cloud service providers) hardware thus freeing these
service requests. Then system management finds correct companies of requirement to have their own physical space
resources. After that, system provisioning finds correct on the client side [6] [17].
resources. After the computing resources are found then the
client request is executed. Finally, results of the service - Client can make use of cloud system’s huge processing
requests are sent to the clients [2][6][13]. power. Like in grid computing, client can send huge complex
calculations on cloud for processing. Sometimes complex
calculations can take years for individual computer to
compute. The cloud system in this case will use the
processing power of required number of available computers
on the back end to speed up the calculation [1][6][8].
Cloud computing offers significant advantage over the
traditional computing system but it has its own issues.

In the next section we discuss about the major security

challenges in cloud computing environment and their existing
counter measures.

Figure 2. Cloud computing Workflow

4 Cloud Computing Challenges
In the next section we discuss different applications of Security and privacy are the two major concerns about
cloud computing environment and how using cloud can be so cloud computing. In the cloud computing world, the virtual
beneficial for organizations of all the sizes. environment lets user access computing power that exceeds
that contained within their physical world. To enter this
3 Cloud Computing Applications virtual environment a user is required to transfer data
throughout the cloud. Consequently several security concerns
The applications of cloud computing are practically arises [4] [7] [8] [16].
limitless. With the right middleware, a cloud computing
system can practically run all the applications a personal
computer can run.
4.1 Information Security
It is concerned with protecting the confidentiality,
integrity and availability of data regardless of the form the
data may take [9].
- Losing control over data: Outsourcing means losing affect both the SDLC (Software development life cycle) and
significant control over data. Large banks don’t want to run a security [4][8]. Updates to AWS infrastructure are done in
program delivered in the cloud that risk compromising their such a manner that in the vast majority of cases they do not
data through interaction with some other program [3][10]. impact the customer and their Service use [9][13]. AWS
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) APIs provide both communicates with customers, either via email, or through
bucket- and object level access controls, with defaults that the AWS Service Health Dashboard when there is a chance
only permit authenticated access by the bucket and/or object that their Service use may be affected [9].
creator. Unless a customer grants anonymous access to their
- Failure in Provider’s Security: Failure of cloud provider
data, the first step before a user can access data is to be
to properly secure portions of its infrastructure – especially in
authenticated using HMAC-SHA1 signature of the request
the maintenance of physical access control – results in the
using the user’s private key [9][15][16]. Therefore, the
compromise of subscriber systems. Cloud can comprise
customer maintains full control over who has access to their
multiple entities, and in such a configuration, no cloud can be
data. [13].
more secure than its weakest link [3][7]. It is expected that
- Data Integrity: Data integrity is assurance that data customer must trust provider’s security. For small and
changes only in response to authorized transactions. For medium size businesses provider security may exceed
example, if the client is responsible for constructing and customer security. It is generally difficult for the details that
validating database queries and the server executes them help ensure that the right things are being done [3][7].
blindly, the intruder will always be able to modify the client-
- Cloud Provider Goes Down: This scenario has a number
side code to do whatever he has permission to do with the
of variants: bankruptcy, deciding to take the business in
backend database. Usually, that means the intruder can read,
another direction, or a widespread and extended outage.
change, or delete data at will [3]. The common standard to
Whatever is going on, subscriber risk losing access to their
ensure data integrity does not yet exists [8]. In this new world
production system due to the actions of another company.
of computing users are universally required to accept the
Subscriber also risk that the organization controlling
underlying premise of trust. In fact, some have conjectured
subscriber data might not protect it in accordance with the
that trust is the biggest concern facing cloud computing [7].
service levels to which they may have been previously
- Risk of Seizure: In a public cloud, you are sharing committed [4]. The only option user have is to chose a second
computing resources with other companies.. Exposing your provider and use automated, regular backups, for which many
data in an environment shared with other companies could open source and commercial solutions exist, to make sure any
give the government “reasonable cause” to seize your assets current and historical data can be recovered even if user cloud
because another company has violated the law. Simply provider were to disappear from the face of the earth [4].
because you share the environment in the cloud, may put data
at risk of seizure [4][8]. The only protection against the risk 4.2 Network Security
of seizure for user is to encrypt their data. The subpoena will
compel the cloud provider to turn over user’s data and any Network security measures are needed to protect data
access it might have to that data, but cloud provider won’t during their transmission, between terminal user and
have user’s access or decryption keys. To get at the data, the computer and between computer and computer [21][22].
court will have to come to user and subpoena user. As a
result, user will end up with the same level of control user - Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attack: In DDOS
have in his private data center [4][16]. attack servers and networks are brought down by a huge
- Incompatibility Issue: Storage services provided by one amount of network traffic and users are denied the access to a
cloud vendor may be incompatible with another vendor’s certain Internet based Service. In a commonly recognized
services should you decide to move from one to the other. worst-case scenario, attackers use botnets to perform DDOS.
Vendors are known for creating what the hosting world calls In order to stop hackers to stop attacking the network,
“sticky services” – services that an end user may have subscriber or provider face blackmail [21][14]. Amazon Web
difficulty transporting from one cloud vendor to another. For Service (AWS) Application Programming Interface (API)
example, Amazon’s “Simple Storage Service” [S3] is endpoints are hosted on large, Internet-scale, world-class
incompatible with IBM’s Blue Cloud, or Google, or Dell infrastructure that benefits from the same engineering
[4][8][13]. Amazon and Microsoft both declined to sign the expertise that has built Amazon into the world’s largest
newly published Open Cloud Manifesto. Amazon and online retailer. Proprietary DDOS mitigation techniques are
Microsoft pursue interoperability on their own terms used. Additionally, Amazon’s networks are multi-homed
[11][12][14]. across a number of providers to achieve Internet access
diversity [9].
- Constant Feature Additions: Cloud applications undergo
constant feature additions, and users must keep up to date - Man in the Middle Attack: This attack is a form of active
with application improvements to be sure they are protected. eavesdropping in which the attacker makes independent
The speed at which applications will change in the cloud will connections with the victims and relays messages between
them, making them believe that they are talking directly to 4.3 Security Issues
each other over a private connection when in fact the entire
conversation is controlled by the attacker [21]. All of the They are more complex in a virtualized environment
AWS APIs are available via SSL-protected endpoints which because you now have to keep track of security on two tiers:
provide server authentication. Amazon EC2 AMIs the physical host security and the virtual machine security. If
automatically generate new SSH host certificates on first boot the physical host server’s security becomes compromised, all
and log them to the instance’s console. Customers can then of the virtual machines residing on that particular host server
use the secure APIs to call the console and access the host are impacted. And a compromised virtual machine might also
certificates before logging into the instance for the first time. wreak havoc on the physical host server, which may then
Customers are encouraged to use SSL for all of their have an ill effect on all of the other virtual machines running
interactions with AWS [9]. on that same host [23].
- IP Spoofing: Spoofing is the creation of TCP/IP packets Instance Isolation: Isolation ensuring that different
using somebody else’s IP address. Intruder gain unauthorized instances running on the same physical machine are isolated
access to computer, whereby he sends messages to a from each other. Virtualization efficiencies in the cloud
computer with an IP address indicating that the message is require virtual machines from multiple organizations to be co-
coming from a trusted host. [21][22]. Amazon EC2 instances located on the same physical resources. Although traditional
cannot send spoofed network traffic. The Amazon-controlled, data center security still applies in the cloud environment,
host-based firewall infrastructure will not permit an instance physical segregation and hardware-based security cannot
to send traffic with a source IP or MAC address other than its protect against attacks between virtual machines on the same
own [9]. server [18]. Administrative access is through the Internet
- Port Scanning: If the Subscriber configures the security rather than the controlled and restricted direct or on-premises
group to allow traffic from any source to a specific port, then connection that is adhered to in the traditional data center
that specific port will be vulnerable to a port scan. Since a model. This increase risk of exposure will require stringent
port is a place where information goes into and out of the monitoring for changes in system control and access control
computer, port scanning identifies open doors to a computer restriction [8]. Different instances running on the same
[21]. There is no way to stop someone from port scanning physical machine are isolated from each other via Xen
your computer while you are on the Internet because hypervisor. Amazon is active in the Xen community, which
accessing an Internet server opens a port which opens a door ensures awareness of the latest developments. In addition, the
to your computer [8]. Port scans by Amazon Elastic Compute AWS firewalls reside within the hypervisor layer, between
Cloud (EC2) customers are a violation of the Amazon EC2 the physical network interface and the instance’s virtual
Acceptable use Policy (AUP). Violations of the AUP are interface. All packets must pass through this layer, thus an
taken seriously, and every reported violation is investigated. instance’s neighbors have no more access to that instance
Customers can report suspected abuse. When port scanning is than any other host in the Internet and can be treated as if
detected it is topped and blocked. Post scans of Amazon EC2 they are on separate physical hosts. The physical RAM is
instances are generally ineffective because, by default, all separated using similar mechanisms [9].
inbound ports on Amazon EC2 instances are closed and are
only opened by the customer [9]. Host Operating System: Administrators with a
business need to access the management plans are required to
- Packet Sniffing: Packet sniffing by Other Tenants: Packet us multi-factor authentication to gain access to purpose-built
sniffing is listening (with software) to the raw network device administration hosts. These administrative hosts are systems
for packets that interest you. When that software sees a that are specifically designed, built, configured, and hardened
packet that fits certain criteria, it logs it to a file. The most to protect the management plane of the cloud. All such access
common criteria for an interesting packet is one that contains is logged and audited. When an employee no longer has a
words like “login” or “password” [21][22]. It is not possible business need to access the management plane, the privileges
for a virtual instance running in promiscuous mode to receive and access to those hosts and relevant systems are revoked
or “sniff” traffic that is intended for a different virtual [18].
instance. While customers can place their interfaces into
promiscuous mode, the hypervisor will not deliver any traffic Guest Operating System: Virtual instances are
to them that is not addressed to them [9]. Even two virtual completely controlled by the customer. Customers have full
instances that are owned by the same customer, located on the root access or administrative control over accounts, services,
same physical host, cannot listen to each other’s traffic. and applications. AWS does not have any access rights to
Attacks such as ARP cache poisoning do not work within customer instances and cannot log into the guest OS. AWS
Amazon EC2. While Amazon EC2 does provide ample recommends a base set of security best practices including:
protection against one customer inadvertently or maliciously customer should disable password-based access to their hosts,
attempting to view another’s data, as a standard practice and utilize some form of multi-factor authentication to gain
customers should encrypt sensitive traffic [9] access to their instances, or at a minimum certificate-based
SSH Version 2 access [9][13][15]. Additionally, customers Job Starvation due to some virus or worm: It is
should employ a privilege escalation mechanism with logging where one job takes up a huge amount of resource resulting
on a per-user basis. For example, if the guest OS is Linux, in a resource starvation for the other jobs. Customer can
After hardening their instance, they should utilize certificate- reserve the resources in advance. Customer can also reduce
based SSHv2 to access the virtual instance, disable remote the priority of the affected tasks/job [16] [18].
root login, use command-line logging, and use ‘sodu’ for
privilege escalation. Customers should generate their own In the next section of our paper we discuss about the
key pairs in order to guarantee that hey are unique, and not various cloud related working groups and their contribution
shared with other customers or with AWS [9]. AWS Multi- in the cloud computing environment.
Factor Authentication (AWS MFA) is an additional layer of
security that offers enhanced control over AWS account 5 Cloud Related Working Groups
settings. It requires a valid six-digit, single-use code from an
authentication device in your physical possession in addition A working group is an assembled, cooperative
to your standard AWS account credentials before access is collaboration of researchers working on new research
granted to an AWS account settings. This is called Multi- activities that would be difficult for any one member to
Factor Authentication because two factors are checked before develop alone. Working groups generally strive to create an
access is granted to your account: customer need to provide informational document a standard, or find some resolution
both their Amazon email-id and password (the first “factor”: for problems related to a system or network. Most often, the
something you know) AND the precise code from customer working group attempts to assemble experts on a topic.
authentication device (the second “factor”: something you Working groups are sometimes also referred to as task groups
have). or technical advisory groups.

4.4 General Security Issues The Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) is organized into
several different working groups [8]. For example, the
In addition to the above mentioned issues there are few working group on Standards and Interoperability for Clouds.
other general security issues that are delaying cloud The purpose of the OCC is to support the development of
computing adoption and needs to be taken care of. standards for cloud computing and to develop framework for
interoperability among various clouds [19]. There is also a
Data Location: When user uses the cloud, user working group on wide area clouds and the impact of
probably won’t know exactly where his data is hosted, what network protocols on clouds. The focus of this working group
country it will be stored in [3][4][8]? Amazon does not even is on developing technology for wide area clouds, including
disclose where their data centers are located. They simply creation of methodologies and benchmarks to be used for
clam that ach data center is hosted in a nondescript building evaluating wide area clouds. This working group is tasked to
with a military-grade perimeter. Even if customer know that study the applicability of variants of TCP and the use of other
their database server is in the us-east-1a availability zone, network protocols for clouds.
customer do not know where that data center9s0 behind that
availability zone is located, or even which of he three East The working group on information sharing, security and
Coast availability zones us-east-1a represents [4]. clouds has a primary focus on standards and standard-based
architectures for sharing information between clouds. This is
Data Sanitization: Sanitization is the process of especially true for clouds belonging to different organizations
removing sensitive information from a storage device. In and subject to possibly different authorities and policies. This
cloud computing users are always concerned about, what group is also concerned with security architectures for clouds.
happens to data stored in a cloud computing environment Finally, there is an Open Cloud Test-bed working group that
once it has passed its user’s “use by date” [18]. When a manages and operates the open cloud test-bed [19].
storage device has reached the end of its useful life, AWS
procedures include a decommissioning process that ensures Another very active group in the field of cloud
customer data are not exposed to unauthorized individuals. computing is Distributed management Task Force (DMTF)
AWS uses the technique DoD 5220.22-M as per National [8]. According to their web site, the distributed management
Industrial Security Program Operating manual to destroy task force enables more effective management of millions of
data, as part of the decommissioning process [9][13]. When IT systems worldwide by bringing the IT industry together to
item and attribute data are deleted within a domain, removal collaborate on the development, validation and promotion of
of the mapping within the domain starts immediately, and is systems management standards [24][25].
also generally complete within seconds. Once the mapping is
removed, there is no remote access to the deleted data. The This group spans the industry with 160 member
storage area is then made available only for write operations companies and organizations, and more than 4,000 active
and the data are overwritten by newly stored data [9]. participants crossing 43 countries. The DMTF board of
directors id led by 16 innovative, industry- leading sometimes called the asserting party, is a platform or
technology companies. application that can relay security information. The relying
party or assertion consumer or requesting party is a partner
The DMTF started the Virtualization Management site that receives the security information. The exchanged
Initiative (VMAN). The VMAN unleashes the power of information deals with a subject’s authentication status,
virtualization by delivering broadly supported interoperability access authorization, and attribute information. A subject is
and portability standards to virtual computing environments. an entity in a particular domain by an email address is a
VMAN enables IT managers to deploy preinstalled, pre subject, as might be a printer [8]. SAML is built on a number
configured solutions across heterogeneous computing of existing standards, namely, SOAP, HTTP and XML.
networks and to manage those applications through their SAML relies on HTTP as its communications protocol and
entire life cycle [20][25]. specifies the use of SOAP.

In the next section we discuss about the major security Open Authentication (OAuth): OAuth is an open
standards for cloud computing and their application in cloud protocol, initiated by Blaine Cook and Chris Messina, to
computing environment. allow secure API authorization in a simple, standardized
method for various types of web applications. OAuth is a
6 Standards for Security in Cloud method for publishing and interacting with protected data.
For developers, OAuth provides users access to their data
Computing while protecting account credentials. It also allows users to
Security standards define the processes, procedures, and grant access to their information, which is shared by the
practices necessary for implementing a security program. service provider and consumers without sharing all of their
These standards also apply to cloud related IT activities and identity. OAuth is the baseline, and other extensions and
include specific steps that should be taken to ensure a secure protocols can be built on it. By design, OAuth Core 1.0 does
environment is maintained that provides privacy and security not provide many desired features, like automated discovery
of confidential information in a cloud environment. Security of endpoints, language support, support for XML-RPC and
standards are based on a set of key principles intended to SOAP, standard definition of resource access, OpenID
protect this type of trusted environment. A basic philosophy integration, signing algorithms, etc [8]. The core deals with
of security is to have layers of defense, a concept known as fundamental aspects of the protocol, namely, to establish a
defense in depth. This means having overlapping systems mechanism for exchanging a user name and password for a
designed to provide security even if one system fails. An token with defined rights and to provide tools to protect the
example is s firewall working in conjunction with intrusion- token. It is important to understand that security and privacy
detection system (IDS). Defense in depth provides security are not guaranteed by the protocol. In fact, OAuth by itself
because there is no single point of failure and no single entry provides no privacy at all and depends on other protocols
vector at which an attack can occur. For this reason, a choice such as SSL to accomplish that.
between implementing network security in the middle part of
a network (i.e., in the cloud) or at the endpoints is a false OpenID: It is an open, decentralized standard for user
dichotomy [8]. No single security system is a solution by authentication and access control. It allows users to log onto
itself, so it is far better to secure all systems. This type of many services using the same digital identity. It is a single-
layered security is precisely what we are seeing develop in sign-on (SSO) method of access control. OpenID replaces the
cloud computing. Traditionally, security was implemented at common log-in process, i.e. a log-in name and a password, by
the endpoints, where the user controlled access. An allowing users to log in once and gain access to resources
organization had no choice except to put firewalls, IDSs, and across participating systems. An OpenID is in the form of a
antivirus software inside its own network. Today, with the unique URL and is authenticated by the entity hosting the
advent of managed security services offered by cloud OpenID URL [9]. The OpenID protocol does not rely on a
providers, additional security can be provided inside the central authority to authenticate a user’s identity. Neither the
cloud [8][9]. OpenID protocol nor any websites requiring identification
can mandate that a specific type of authentication be used;
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): nonstandard forms of authentication such as smart cards,
SAML is an XML-based standard for communicating biometrics, or ordinary password are allowed [8].
authentication, authorization, and attribute information
among online partners. It allows businesses to securely send SSL/TLS: Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its
assertions between partner organizations regarding the predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are
identity and entitlements of a principal. SAML standardizes cryptographically secure protocols designed to provide
queries for, and responses that contain, user authentication, security and data integrity for communications over TCP/IP.
entitlements, and attribute information in an XML format. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at
This format can then be used to request security information the transport layer. The TLS protocol allows client/server
about a principal from a SAML authority. A SMAL authority, applications to communicate across a network in a way
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