The public streets and highways of the internet have become like neighborhoods where it is no longer safe to venture. Hackers, scammers, virus builders and other Web predators are looming in the shadows. -- Paul Tinnirello CIO in an insurance financial industry The Gated Community, e-Week, 13 Oct 2003

Computer Crimes

An information session for participants in the 57-201 Introduction to Forensic Science course

Akshai AggarwalSchool of Computer Science

Flow of the sessionHistorical perspective 4-14Threats and AttacksThreats 18-21Types of Attacks 23-30Technology of defence 32-50Laws and group Efforts in Canada 51A couple of general ideas, in conclusion

Note: Terminology may be explained, as the need arises.

Historical Perspective: Terminology1960s and 1970s:Hacker: a positive term

A Hacker: An expert, knowledgeable about programming and operating systems

1970s onwards:Hacker: a term, which progressively became more negative.

A Hacker: Someone using computers without authorization..Hacker: Someone committing crimes by using computers

Types of Non-authorized UsersHacker: people who access a computer resource, without authorization Crackers: a hacker who uses his or her skills to commit unlawful acts, or to deliberately create mischief Script Kiddies: a hacker who downloads the scripts and uses them to commit unlawful acts, or to deliberately create mischief, without fully understanding the scripts. VandalsReference:http://www.e2chameleon.btinternet.co.uk/hacking.htm

Terminology of HackingEavesdropping or Snooping (also called passive wire-tapping)

Active wire-tapping or man-in-the middle attack

Dumpster Diving: colloquial for looking through all the easily available material before an actual intrusion into a system

The Global Net: A Virtual Intelligent Global System2 Sept 1969 LEN KLEINROCKS Lab at UC,LA 1971 15 Nodes 23 Hosts 1973 BOB METCALFES thesis on ETHERNET at Harvard 1974 TCP: CERF & BOB KAHNS paper 1983 DoD Official Protocol. 1989 Hypertext & WWW at CERN by Berner Lee

Then came the BROWSERS MOSAIC NCSA and the WWW

Security Technologies:A little history of an ancient art: The first printed book on cryptologyJohannes Trithemius, an abbot in Spanheim : One of the founders of cryptology

The first printed book of cryptology: titled Polygraphiae Libri Sex in German language in 1518 by Johannes Trithemius,published after the death of the writer.

(The title means -Six Books of Polygraphy)

A little history (continued)Earlier in 1499 he had written a 3-bookSteganographia, (meaning covered writing): which was circulated privately was published in 1606. The first two books: about cryptology. But the third book could not be understood, without understanding the encoding that he had used.

A little history (continued): A challenge for a cryptanalystIn the third book, which was considered to be incomplete, Trithemius explained why he had made it hard to understand:This I did that to men of learning and men deeply engaged in magic, it might, by the Grace of God, be in some degree intelligible, while on the other hand, to the thick skinned turnip-eaters it might for all time remain a hidden secret, and be to their dull intellects a sealed book forever.

Ban, what you dont understand.The third book: banned in 1609, ostensibly because it explained how to employ spirits for sending secret messages. The challenge - of deciphering the book: met by three persons in 500 years1676:Wolfgang Heidel, the archbishop of Mainz, Germany, claimed to have deciphered the third book of Trithemius. But his discovery was stated in a secret code of his own. So nobody knew whether Heidel had understood the book.

A little history: Deciphering the third book of Trithemius1996:Thomas Ernst, Prof of German at La Roche College, Pittsburgh published a 200-page German-language report in a small Dutch journal, Daphnis.WIDELY KNOWN SOLUTION: spring 1998: Jim Reeds of AT & T labs solved the riddle of understanding the third book independently. He did not know of the earlier work of Ernst.Trithemius work: basically simple: Ernst took two weeks and Reeds took two days to understand it.Both Ernst and Reeds, separately, deciphered Heidels work and found that Heidel had been able to decipher Trithemius third book.

The first attackThe Internet Worm (Nov 1988)Morris, a graduate student at CMU released a program on the internet:utilized a security hole in the mail receipt softwareautomatically replicated itself locally and to remote machinesaffected a wide class of machines and effectively shut down internet for 1-2 days. Cost estimate to fix: $5 million

The first convictionMitnick and Shimomura (Christmas 1994) Used SYN flooding and TCP Hijacking to connect to Shimomuras home machine.Stole copies of 1000s of files including specialized computer security software; modified log files to remove signs of entry.Shimomura found out about the entry and informed FBI.

.there will be more security breaches, says Schneier As more of our infrastructure moves online, as more things, that someone might want to access or steal, move online . As our networking systems become more complex .. As our computers get more powerful and more useful..

Common attacks on banks through InternetLosses due to attacks:"The major banks don't want to divulge the amount of losses. But just to give one example, a major Australian bank has put several million dollars in reserve since August 2003 to cover damages due to Internet frauds. Dave Jevans, eWeek, Dec 2003

Causes of Security Problems on InternetInternet Technology: was developed based on trustSecurity features: added, as different types of attacks are mounted.Users: bother about ease of use and not about security

Security ThreatsRFC 1244 identifies three distinct types of security threats associated with network connectivity:Unauthorized access A break-in by an unauthorized person. Break-ins may be an embarrassment that undermine the confidence that others have in the organization. Moreover unauthorized access one of the other threats:-- disclosure of information or --denial of service.

Classification of Security Threats Reference: RFC 1244 Disclosure of information disclosure of valuable or sensitive information to people, who should not have access to the information.Denial of service or Degradation of serviceAny problem that makes it difficult or impossible for the system to continue to perform productive work.

Do not connect to Internet: a system with highly classified information, or, if the risk of liability in case of disclosure is great.

Brent Chapmans Three Categories of Security Threats Brent Chapmans Classification: ConfidentialityOf dataOf existence of dataOf resources, their operating systems, their configurationOf resources used, in case the resources are taken on rent from a service provider

Information Security Threats Chapmans Classification (contd.) availability: A DoS attack may disruptavailability of a service, or availability of dataintegrity Of dataOf origin: Once someone has gained unauthorized accessto a system, the integrity of the information onthat system is in doubt.

Loss Breakdown

Reference: Jim Alves-Foss , Center for Secure and Dependable Systems, Univ of Idaho, http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~jimaf/cs442/crime-talk.ppt

Types of AttacksAttacks on computer systems using the computersWeb-site defacement or Revealing the data to unauthorized persons/theft of sensitive information/ stealing information having Intellectual Property Rights like stealing credit card numbersbank frauds or Damage to data through Hacking orVirus/Worms

Types of Attacks continuedHoax Letters: Examples Malicious code (viruses and trojan horses)Urban mythsScam letters to entrap the receiverInternet gamblingInternet Pornography/ stalking Link Flooding Packet Intercepting, Password Sniffing

Types of Attacks

propagate false routing entries (black holes and sink holes, www.citibank.com, www.mybank.az)domain name hijackingPhishing attacks: use e-mails that often appear to come from a legitimate e-mail address and include links to spoofed Web addresses. The receiver responds to the link, which takes the receiver to a site, other than what the receiver thinks he is going to. (announced by MS on 16 Dec 2003, as a problem with Internet Explorer).

Anti-Phishing.orgA Web site www.antiphishing.org,, for reporting incidents, set up by a group of global banks and technology companies, led by Secure-messaging firm Tumbleweed Communications CorpFast Response required: The Web sites designed for collecting personal information in phishing attacks are often alive for a day only. Example: Dec 2003:The e-mail appeared to come from the U.K. bank NatWest. Anti-Phishing.org tracked the IP address to a home computer in San Francisco. But a clear case of spoofingthe mail was relayed from a hijacked computer (called a zombie)

An Example: time-to-market for Internet Security products 16 December, 2003: Discovery of the problem of Phishing 5 January 2004: Announcement of development of a new Anti-phishing service by Netcraft, of Bath, England. Netcraft says that the service is mainly for banks and other financial organizations

Other Computer CrimesSpoofing or Masquerading of a host or a service-provider (Distinguish it from Delegation)Repudiation of origin or of creation of some fileDenial of receiptUsurpation: unauthorized controlData Diddling (To enter false data intentionally)

To be an effective Information Warrior, individuals need superior computer skills, as well as an in-depth understanding of information technology architectures, protocols and processes. --- Michael Erbschloeauthor of Information Warfare: How to Survive Cyber Attacks

General Strategies for security encrypting sensitive data reduce size of target: disable unneeded serviceslimit access of attacker to target systemshardening the OS and applications

It is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics. ---Bruce Schneier in Applied Cryptography

CRYPTOGRAPHYCryptography (from two words in Greek): means secret writing.Cryptoanalysis: breaking of a cryptographic codeCRYPTOGRAPHY: process data into unintelligible form, reversibly/irreversiblywithout data loss usually one-to-one in size /compression

CryptographyServices, provided by cryptographic tools:Encoding information into a form which makes the information unintelligible to an unauthorized person integrity checking: no tamperingauthentication: not an impostorEncryption or EncipheringEncryption AlgorithmPlaintextKeyCiphertext

EncryptionTwo types of Encryption AlgorithmsReversibleIrreversibleTwo types of KeysSymmetricAssymetric

Reversible EncryptionReversible ENCRYPTION:

cleartext ENCRYPTION DEVICE encryption key

cleartextcan be used only when the same type of encryption software/equipment is available at both the endsciphertextDecryption DeviceDecryption key

DecryptionDecryption or DecipheringDecryptionAlgorithmCiphertextPlaintext

Key

Cryptographic Hash Functions (H)H : A transformation: One way m = variable size input h = hash value : a fixed size string, also known as message digest or fingerprint or compression function. H(m)mh

Message Digest (recapitulation) VariableLengthMessageHashingAlgorithmFixed LengthDigest

Secret Key/ Symmetric Cryptography

Simpler and faster (than ?) and, of course, secureFor Integrity check, a fixed-length checksum for the message may have to be used; CRC* not sufficient*Cyclic Redundancy Check

Symmetric Key EncryptionAlso called Private/Secret key Encryption Sender-endMessageby sender

Messageat receiverPr-keyPr-keyEncryptedMessageEncryptedMessageInternetReceiver-end

public-key cryptography (continued)

Asymmetric Key EncryptionAlso called Public key Encryption

MessageMessageBs publicBs privateEncryptedMessageEncryptedMessageInternetABkeykey

public-key cryptography (continued)Data transmission: private key(d), public key (e)

public-key cryptography (continued)Applications and Advantages:Storage: for safety: use public key of trusted personSecret vs. Public Key system: secret key system: needs secret key for every pair of persons, that wish to communicate n users n(n-1)/2 keys public key system: needs two keys for every person, who wants to communicate. n users 2n keys

Digital certificate for getting Public Key reliablyA digital certificate from a trusted party may contain: The name of a personHis e-mail addressHis public keyThe recipient of the encrypted certificate uses the public key of the Certification Authority to decode the certificate.Examples of CAs: www.verisign.com or www.thawte.com (Verisigns liability limited to $100 only!) Standard for certificate: X.509

Digital signaturesDigital Signatures: A is to sign a Msg and send it to BMsgMsgMsg +EncodedDigestDigestAlgorithmMsg +EncodedDigestDigestAlgorithmDecode digest using Public key of AEncoding using Private key of ADigestDigestCompareBA

Laws and Group Efforts in CanadaNo separate cyberspace law in CanadaBut the Canadian Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act apply in cyberspace. The Internet Protection Portal, established by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP): an on-line window to resources for a user to safeguard the Internet experience. Media Awareness Network (MNet): supports media education in Canadian homes, schools and communities.

Birthday paradoxA result from probability theory: Consider an element that has an equal probability of assuming any one of the N values. The probability of a collision is more than 50% after choosing 1.2N values.

FunctionRandom inputOne of k equally likely valuesThe same output can be expected after 1.2k1/2 inputs. Thus in a group of 23, two or more persons are likely to share the same birthday. (Put k = 365) Birthday attacks are used to find collisions of Hash functions

Example of a Birthday AttackAssumeA 64 bit keyThe first statement in a message is always the same.A hacker listens to and stores all encrypted messages. When the FIRST encrypted sentence turns out to be the same, he replaces the rest of the new message by the old message, that he has in his memory. By Birthday Paradox, this is likely to happen after 232 transactions.

Cryptography vs. SteganographyCryptography : uses techniques like transpositions and substitution to make a message unintelligibleSteganography : hides the existence of the method.Cryptography provides privacy. Steganography provides secrecy.

Hiding a message in a pictureDescribed by Wyner in Byte Kodak photo CD resolution of 2048x3072 pixels. Each pixel: 24-bit RGB color information. Modify the last bit (out of 8 bits) for each color. Amount of data that can be hidden in a single picture:2048 * 3072*3 = 2.359296 Mb = about 300,000B 10^6

If four bits of intensity for each of the three colors RGB are altered 1.5 text characters hidden in each pixel of the photo. A 640x480 pixel image can store over 400,000 characters, equal to a whole book.

Steganography: Hiding Messages: Example of a Laser printerAnother example: Laser printers can adjust spacing of lines and characters by less than 1/300th of an inch. To hide a 0, leave a standard space.To hide a 1, leave 1/300th of an inch more than usual. Varying the spacing over an entire document canhide a short binary message that is undetectableby the human eye. The hidden message will be carried by every photocopy of the document also.

To Intrusion Detection AnalystsFolks! You are the trackers of the 21st century. The signs are there, plain as day. It is up to you to find them and give the interpretation. Stephen Northcutt et.al.

References:The Trithemius riddle :1. Thomas (Penn) Leary, Cryptology in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Cryptologia, July 1996, available at http://home.att.net/~tleary/cryptolo.htm2. http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/19980629bspirit1.asp3. Gina Kolata, A Mystery Unraveled, Twice, The New York Times, April 14, 1998, pp. F1, F6, available at http://cryptome.unicast.org/cryptome022401/tri-crack.htm Hoax letters: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

configuration changes (SNMP)

PDo not confuse with the Hash function used for accessing hash tables ( a data structure used in many algorithms).To say that it should be secure is like saying that a roof should not leak.