DOCSLIB.ORG

The Virtual Faraday Cage

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Virtual Faraday Cage University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-08-09 The Virtual Faraday Cage King, James King, J. (2013). The Virtual Faraday Cage (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28416 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/867 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Virtual Faraday Cage by James King A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF A MASTERS OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2013 c James King 2013 Abstract This thesis' primary contribution is that of a new architecture for web application plat- forms and their extensions, entitled \The Virtual Faraday Cage". This new architecture addresses some of the privacy and security related problems associated with third-party extensions running within web application platforms. A proof-of-concept showing how the Virtual Faraday Cage could be implemented is described. This new architecture aims to help solve some of the key security and privacy con- cerns for end-users in web applications by creating a mechanism by which a third-party could create an extension that works with end-user data, but which could never leak such information back to the third-party. To facilitate this, the thesis also incorporates a basic privacy-aware access control mechanism. This architecture could be used for centralized web application platforms (such as Facebook) as well as decentralized plat- forms. Ideally, the Virtual Faraday Cage should be incorporated into the development of new web application platforms, but could also be implemented via wrappers around existing application platform Application Programming Interfaces with minimal changes to existing platform code or workflows. ii Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my supervisors Ken Barker and Jalal Kawash. Without their guidance and mentorship, and their patience and support { I would not have completed my program or produced this work. I have the utmost respect for both Dr. Barker and Dr. Kawash as professors and supervisors, and I believe that anyone would be fortunate to have their instruction and guidance. While I did not complete my degree under them, special mention is deserved for my original supervisors, Rei Safavi-Naini and John Aycock { who both gave me the initial opportunity to come and study at the University of Calgary, and also the flexibility to change my area of research afterwards. I'd also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Gregory Hagen and Dr. Payman Mohassel, as well as my neutral chair Dr. Peter Høyer. Both Dr. Hagen and Dr. Mo- hassel were very approachable during the final leg of my journey, and I appreciated their examination of my work. Dr. Hagen's feedback regarding Canadian privacy law was es- pecially welcome, and I am happy to have expanded my thesis to address that specifically. More generally, I'd like to thank the University of Calgary's Department of Computer Science { their other faculty members, their IT staff, the department chair Dr. Carey Williams, as well as their office staff. Acknowledgments are also deserved for all the support and training I received at Florida Atlantic University and especially their Department of Mathematics and Center for Cryptology and Information Security. Without the numerous people there that helped shape and prepare me for graduate school, I would have never come to the University of Calgary or pursued the path that I took. In particular, exceptional thanks should be reserved for Dr. Rainer Steinwandt, Dr. Ronald Mullin, Dr. Spyros Magliveras, and Dr. Michal Sramka.ˇ It's impossible for me to name everyone who has helped me along, but final thanks should go to all my friends and family who have given me their support during my studies. iii iv Table of Contents Abstract . ii Acknowledgments . iii Table of Contents . iv List of Figures . vii 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Premise . 1 1.2 Organization of this Thesis . 3 1.3 Background & Motivations . 4 1.3.1 Web Applications . 4 1.3.2 Online Social Networks as a Specific Web Application Platform . 5 1.4 Privacy . 7 1.4.1 Defining and Describing Privacy . 8 1.4.2 Laws, Business, and the Value of Privacy . 11 1.5 Social Networks . 22 1.5.1 The Value of Social Network Data . 22 1.5.2 Innate Risks, Threats, and Concerns . 28 1.6 Security . 33 1.6.1 Access Control and Information Flow Control . 34 1.6.2 Sandboxing . 36 1.7 Summary . 38 2 Related Work . 40 2.1 Overview . 40 2.2 Software and Web Applications . 41 2.2.1 P3P and Privacy Policies . 41 2.2.2 Better Developer Tools . 45 2.2.3 Empowering the End-User . 46 2.3 Social Networks . 46 2.3.1 Hiding End-User Data . 46 2.3.2 Third-Party Extensions . 49 2.4 Browser Extensions . 50 2.5 Summary . 52 3 Theoretical Model . 54 3.1 Basics . 54 3.2 Formal Model . 55 3.2.1 Foundations . 55 3.2.2 Information leakage . 65 3.3 Summary . 72 4 Architecture . 73 4.1 Preamble . 73 4.2 Features . 76 4.2.1 Data URIs . 76 v 4.2.2 Hashed IDs and Opaque IDs . 76 4.2.3 Callbacks . 77 4.2.4 Seamless Remote Procedure Calls and Interface Reconstruction . 78 4.3 Information Flow Control . 79 4.4 URIs . 82 4.4.1 Domains . 82 4.4.2 Paths . 83 4.5 Application Programming Interfaces . 86 4.5.1 Web Application Platform API . 86 4.5.2 Third-Party Extension API . 92 4.5.3 Shared Methods . 93 4.5.4 Relationship with the Theoretical Model . 94 4.6 High-Level Protocol . 94 4.6.1 Accessing a Third-Party Extension . 94 4.6.2 Mutual Authentication . 98 4.6.3 Privacy by Proxy . 99 4.7 Remote Procedure Calls . 100 4.7.1 Overview . 100 4.7.2 Protocol Requirements . 101 4.7.3 Requirement Fulfillment . 101 4.7.4 Protocol . 103 4.7.5 Messages . 103 4.7.6 Serialized Data . 105 4.7.7 Responses . 105 4.7.8 Security . 106 4.8 Sandboxing . 106 4.9 Inter-extension Communication . 108 4.10 Methodology and Proof-of-Concept . 110 4.10.1 Methodology . 110 4.10.2 Development . 112 4.10.3 Proof-of-Concept . 113 4.10.4 Formal Model . 113 4.10.5 Example Third-Party . 116 4.10.6 Facebook Wrapper . 118 4.11 Effects and Examples . 119 4.11.1 A more connected web . 120 4.11.2 Examples . 122 4.12 Summary . 128 5 Analysis & Conclusion . 129 5.1 Comparisons and Contrast . 129 5.1.1 PIPEDA Compliance . 129 5.1.2 Comparisons with Other Works . 138 5.2 Time & Space Complexity . 142 5.2.1 Hashed IDs . 143 5.2.2 Opaque IDs . 143 5.2.3 Views . 144 5.2.4 Access Control . 145 5.2.5 Subscriptions . 146 5.2.6 Sandboxing . 146 5.2.7 Protocol . 148 5.2.8 Summary . ..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Canadian Privacy Law: the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
    International In-house Counsel Journal Vol. 2, No. 7, Spring 2009, 1135–1146 Canadian Privacy Law: The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) DOMINIC JAAR PATRICK E. ZELLER Legal Counsel Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Ledjit Consulting, Inc. Guidance Software, Inc. Canada United States This white paper provides a general overview of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), and discusses both the privacy requirements imposed by that Act as well as the rules governing the use of electronic documents that it sets out. Overview Introduction to PIPEDA PIPEDA is the federal legislative response to growing concerns over the protection and use of personal information that is accumulated by both public and private organizations in the course of their day-to-day operations.1 The Act sets out rules governing how such information should be handled by the organizations that collect it, and under what circumstances it may be disclosed, either to third parties or to the individual who is the subject of the information. The Act contains two main parts. The first part sets out the rules governing the collection, retention and disclosure of personal information, as well as the remedies available in the event of a suspected breach. In essence, this part of the Act establishes a framework which attempts to balance the privacy rights of individuals with the needs of organizations to collect, use, and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activities. This part of the Act is discussed in sections I and II of this document. The second part of the Act describes the circumstances in which electronic alternatives may be used to fulfill legal obligations, which, under federal laws, require the use of paper documents to record or communicate information or transactions.
    [Show full text]
  • Off the Grid: Pinpointing Location-Based Technologies and the Law
    Off the Grid: Pinpointing Location-based Technologies and the Law Written By: Geoffrey White, Barrister & Solicitor External Counsel The Public Interest Advocacy Centre 1204 - ONE Nicholas St. Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7 June 2015 Copyright 2015 PIAC Contents may not be commercially reproduced. Any other reproduction with acknowledgment is encouraged. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) Suite 1204 ONE Nicholas Street Ottawa, ON K1N 7B7 Tel: (613) 562-4002 Fax: (613) 562-0007 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.piac.ca Canadian Cataloguing and Publication Data ISBN 978-1-927707-03-6 Off the Grid? Pinpointing Location-Based Technologies and the Law Off the Grid? Pinpointing Location-Based Technologies and the Law Page 2 of 109 Acknowledgement Financial support from Industry Canada to conduct the research on which this report is based is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of Industry Canada or of the Government of Canada. The author would also like to thank Kent Sebastian, PIAC Student-at-Law 2014-15, Sarah Mavula, PIAC Summer Student 2014, and Jonathan Bishop, PIAC’s Research & Parliamentary Affairs Analyst, for their research and contributions. Any mistakes are solely the author’s. Off the Grid? Pinpointing Location-Based Technologies and the Law Page 3 of 109 Executive Summary Knowledge of the whereabouts of a person, and of a person’s movement patterns, can be very valuable, from a marketing perspective. Indeed, the scale and scope of the business opportunities associated with so-called location-based behavioural marketing and location- based services (collectively, location-based technologies) have been well-documented in the business literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography
    Bibliography [1] M Aamir Ali, B Arief, M Emms, A van Moorsel, “Does the Online Card Payment Landscape Unwittingly Facilitate Fraud?” IEEE Security & Pri- vacy Magazine (2017) [2] M Abadi, RM Needham, “Prudent Engineering Practice for Cryptographic Protocols”, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering v 22 no 1 (Jan 96) pp 6–15; also as DEC SRC Research Report no 125 (June 1 1994) [3] A Abbasi, HC Chen, “Visualizing Authorship for Identification”, in ISI 2006, LNCS 3975 pp 60–71 [4] H Abelson, RJ Anderson, SM Bellovin, J Benaloh, M Blaze, W Diffie, J Gilmore, PG Neumann, RL Rivest, JI Schiller, B Schneier, “The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third-Party Encryption”, in World Wide Web Journal v 2 no 3 (Summer 1997) pp 241–257 [5] H Abelson, RJ Anderson, SM Bellovin, J Benaloh, M Blaze, W Diffie, J Gilmore, M Green, PG Neumann, RL Rivest, JI Schiller, B Schneier, M Specter, D Weizmann, “Keys Under Doormats: Mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications”, MIT CSAIL Tech Report 2015-026 (July 6, 2015); abridged version in Communications of the ACM v 58 no 10 (Oct 2015) [6] M Abrahms, “What Terrorists Really Want”,International Security v 32 no 4 (2008) pp 78–105 [7] M Abrahms, J Weiss, “Malicious Control System Cyber Security Attack Case Study – Maroochy Water Services, Australia”, ACSAC 2008 [8] A Abulafia, S Brown, S Abramovich-Bar, “A Fraudulent Case Involving Novel Ink Eradication Methods”, in Journal of Forensic Sciences v41(1996) pp 300-302 [9] DG Abraham, GM Dolan, GP Double, JV Stevens,
    [Show full text]
  • Report of Findings: Joint Investigation of Clearview AI, Inc
    REPORT OF FINDINGS Joint investigation of Clearview AI, Inc. by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, and the Information Privacy Commissioner of Alberta OPC PIPEDA-039525/CAI QC-1023158/OIPC BC P20- 81997/OIPC AB-015017 Joint Investigation by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (CAI), the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC BC), and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC AB) into Clearview AI, Inc.’s compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector, the Act to Establish a Legal Framework for Information Technology (LCCJTI), the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA BC), and the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA AB) Page 1 / 29 Contents Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 Background ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Issues .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Methodology .............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Secure Coding Open Source Libraries for Java Programmers
    Secure Coding Open Source Libraries for Java Programmers Jim Manico @manicode OWASP Volunteer - Global OWASP Board Member Independent Secure Coding Instructor - Developer 17+ years - Secure coding educator - Co-author of "Iron Clad Java Building Secure Web ApplicaGons" from Oracle Press McGraw Hill Kama'aina Resident of Kauai, Hawaii - Aloha! Authen;caon Password Storage Defense Overview • Offline A?acks – Avoid Hashing or Encrypon – Use proper key derivaDon funcDons and stretching configuraons – Use random and unique per-user salts • Less effec;ve against targeted aacks, but use them anyhow – Strict Password Policy – Mul;-Factor Authen;caon reference: Openwall and http://www.openwall.com/presentations Password Storage !Store password based on need "Use a salt (de-duplicaon) "BCRYPT/SCRYPT/PBKDF2 (slow, performance hit, easy) "HMAC (requires good key storage, tough) Allow very complex and long passwords 1) Do not limit the type of characters or length of user password • Limiting passwords to protect against injection is doomed to failure • Use proper encoder and other defenses described instead • Set large password length limits • Django DOS vulnerability Salt passwords uniquely for each user 2) Use a cryptographically strong credential-specific salt protect( salt + password ); • Use a 32char or 64char salt (actual size dependent on protection function); • Do not depend on hiding, splitting, or otherwise obscuring the salt Leverage One-Way Keyed Func;ons 3) Impose difficult verification on [only] the attacker (strong/fast) HMAC-SHA-256( key,
    [Show full text]
  • Data Governance in the Digital Age a Cigi Essay Series
    DATA GOVERNANCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE A CIGI ESSAY SERIES I CONTENTS Introduction Data Governance in the Digital Age . 2 Rohinton P. Medhora Rationale of a Data Strategy Considerations for Canada’s National Data Strategy . 6 Teresa Scassa The Economics of Data: Implications for the Data-driven Economy . 14 Dan Ciuriak The Government’s Role in Constructing the Data-driven Economy . 20 Blayne Haggart Canadian Network Sovereignty: A Strategy for Twenty-First-Century National Infrastructure Building . 26 Andrew Clement The Role of a Data Strategy for Canadian Industries Treasure of the Commons: Global Leadership through Health Data . 34 Sachin Aggarwal Monetizing Smart Cities: Framing the Debate . 43 Kurtis McBride Big Data: The Canadian Opportunity . 47 Ian MacGregor Balancing Privacy and Commercial Values Preventing Big Data Discrimination in Canada: Addressing Design, Consent and Sovereignty Challenges . 54 Jonathan Obar and Brenda McPhail Data and the Future of Growth: The Need for Strategic Data Policy . 63 Dan Breznitz Domestic Policy for Data Governance Ungoverned Space: How Surveillance Capitalism and AI Undermine Democracy . 70 Taylor Owen Screen Time, the Brain, Privacy and Mental Health . 75 Norman Doidge Governance Vacuums and How Code Is Becoming Law . 81 Bianca Wylie Measuring the Economy in an Increasingly Digitalized World: Are Statistics Up to the Task? . 86 André Loranger, Amanda Sinclair and James Tebrake International Policy Considerations Data Libera? Canada’s Data Strategy and the Law of the Sea . 92 Ariel Katz Data Rules in Modern Trade Agreements: Toward Reconciling an Open Internet with Privacy and Security Safeguards . 99 Michael Geist Data Minefield? How AI Is Prodding Governments to Rethink Trade in Data .
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Rights Management and Consumer Privacy: an Assessment of DRM Applications Under Canadian Privacy
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CIPPIC gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for this study. The study was directed by David Fewer, Staff Counsel for CIPPIC, and coordinated by Philippe Gauvin, LL.M. candidate at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. Vanessa Lavoie provided administrative support. The following law students conducted investigations and/or conducted market research: Rachel Leck, Dan McConville, Seraphina Allen, Safwan Javed, Safina Lakhani, Kiernan Murphy, Denise Chapchal, Philippe Gauvin, Adam Barker. Special thanks to the following individuals who contributed to our DRM technological review: Mark McCans, Adam Barker, Byron Thom, Kiernan Murphy, Kris Constable and Angelique Mannella. Thanks to CIPPIC’s Director, Philippa Lawson, for her contributions to the PIPEDA assessment framework and her thorough review of the draft. An extra special thank you goes to our editors, Rachel Leck and Monique Moreau, for editing what ended up being a massive report. The report was drafted by David Fewer, Philippe Gauvin, and Alex Cameron. Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law 57 Louis Pasteur St. Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada Tel: 613-562-5800 x.2553 Fax: 613-562-5417 Email: [email protected] This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. ISBN 978-0-9781083-2-8 This publication is also available on our website at www.cippic.ca and wiki at www.cippic.ca/drm.
    [Show full text]
  • Left to Their Own Devices.Pdf(Link Is External)
    ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This project was funded by the 2016-2017 Contributions Program of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC); the views expressed herein are those of the co-authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OPC. As part of this program, the authors, in association with the Surveillance Studies Centre (SSC) at Queen’s University conducted an exploratory study of wearable devices in Canadian workplaces. Specifically, in an era where bodies are increasingly being represented by information, this research seeks to highlight the extent and proliferation of these devices, as well as, current information management practices and policy recommendations in the Canadian context. ABOUT THE SURVEILLANCE STUDIES CENTRE The Surveillance Studies Centre is a not-for-profit multi-disciplinary research centre at Queen's University. The SSC is a leading global hub for research on expanding surveillance practices and the increasing mobility of personal data and information. Through collaborative national and international projects, the SSC examines a full range of surveillance, security, and privacy issues. We provide up-to-date analysis, seek appropriate modes of ethical assessment and democratic involvement, raise awareness with the public, and seek to inform policy at every level. Working with academic, policy and NGO partners, the SSC makes a lasting difference in organizational practices, regulatory regimes and everyday lives. http://www.sscqueens.org ABOUT THE AUTHORS Steven Richardson: Is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. His research examines the development of emerging technologies in socio-technical environments – particularly, the push and pull of users' own contributions to the design and development of these technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Geo-Immersive Surveillance & Canadian Privacy
    Geo-Immersive Surveillance & Canadian Privacy Law By Stuart Andrew Hargreaves A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science. Faculty of Law University of Toronto © Copyright by Stuart Hargreaves (2013) Geo-Immersive Surveillance & Canadian Privacy Law Stuart Andrew Hargreaves Doctor of Juridical Science Faculty of Law, University of Toronto 2013 Abstract Geo-immersive technologies digitally map public space for the purposes of creating online maps that can be explored by anyone with an Internet connection. This thesis considers the implications of their growth and argues that if deployed on a wide enough scale they would pose a threat to the autonomy of Canadians. I therefore consider legal means of regulating their growth and operation, whilst still seeking to preserve them as an innovative tool. I first consider the possibility of bringing ‘invasion of privacy’ actions against geo-immersive providers, but my analysis suggests that the jurisprudence relies on a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ approach that makes it virtually impossible for claims to privacy ‘in public’ to succeed. I conclude that this can be traced to an underlying philosophy that ties privacy rights to an idea of autonomy based on shielding the individual from the collective. I argue instead considering autonomy as ‘relational’ can inform a dialectical approach to privacy that seeks to protect the ability of the individual to control their exposure in a way that can better account for privacy claims made in public. I suggest that while it is still challenging to craft a private law remedy based on such ideas, Canada’s data protection legislation may be a more suitable vehicle.
    [Show full text]
  • Consumers Anonymous?
    Consumers Anonymous? The Privacy Risks of De-Identified and Aggregated Consumer Data 6 October 2011 Public Interest Advocacy Centre http://www.piac.ca Acknowledgements PIAC gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Contributions Program for this study. We are also grateful for time and knowledge of various stakeholders consulted during the research of this project. In particular, PIAC would like to acknowledge the assistance and cooperation of the Canadian Bankers Association, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association and Insurance Bureau of Canada and their members for answering our questions and providing insights into their members’ practices. Janet Lo, John Lawford, and Roxane Gunning drafted the report. Janet Lo and John Lawford conducted the research for this study. Eden Maher, Diane Tsang, Amy Zhao, and Roxane Gunning provided research assistance. 2 Copyright 2011 PIAC Contents may not be commercially reproduced. Any other reproduction with acknowledgment is encouraged. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) Suite 1204 ONE Nicholas Street Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7 Canadian Cataloguing and Publication Data Consumers Anonymous? The Privacy Risks of De-Identified and Aggregated Consumer Data ISBN 1895060-99-0 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 7 2. METHODOLOGY ...............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada Details Nine Key Trends in the Pro- Cessing of Personal Information, Trends That Are Evident Throughout the World
    transparent lives the new transparency project Transparent Lives Surveillance in Canada Editors: Colin J. Bennett, Kevin D. Haggerty, DaviD lyon, valerie SteeveS Copyright © 2014 Colin J. Bennett, Kevin D. Haggerty, David lyon, and valerie Steeves Published by AU Press, athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, edmonton, AB t5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-927356-77-7 (print) 978-1-927356-78-4 (PDF) 978-1-927356-79-1 (epub) doi:10.15215/aupress/9781927356777.01 Cover and interior design by Marvin Harder, marvinharder.com Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens library and archives canada cataloguing in publication transparent lives : surveillance in Canada / editors, Colin J. Bennett, Kevin D. Haggerty, David lyon, valerie Steeves. “the new transparency Project.” includes bibliographical references and index. issued in print and electronic formats. iSBn 978-1-927356-77-7 (pbk.).—iSBn 978-1-927356-78-4 (pdf).—iSBn 978-1-927356-79-1 (epub) 1. electronic surveillance—Canada. 2. Privacy, right of—Canada. 3. Social control— Canada. i. Bennett, Colin J. (Colin John), 1955-, editor of compilation II. Haggerty, Kevin D., editor of compilation III. lyon, David, 1948-, editor of compilation IV. Steeves, valerie M., 1959-, editor of compilation JC599.C3t73 2014 323.44’820971 C2013-908668-4 C2013-908669-2 this book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities research Council of Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.
    [Show full text]
  • Code Injection Vulnerabilities in Web Applications - Exemplified at Cross-Site Scripting Martin Johns
    Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften Code Injection Vulnerabilities in Web Applications - Exemplified at Cross-site Scripting Martin Johns Eingereicht an der Fakult¨atf¨urInformatik und Mathematik der Universit¨atPassau Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Joachim Posegga Prof. Dr. Dieter Gollmann Submitted April 14th 2009, defended July 22nd 2009 2 Abstract The majority of all security problems in today’s Web applications is caused by string- based code injection, with Cross-site Scripting (XSS) being the dominant representative of this vulnerability class. This thesis discusses XSS and suggests defense mechanisms. We do so in three stages: First, we conduct a thorough analysis of JavaScript’s capabilities and explain how these capabilities are utilized in XSS attacks. We subsequently design a systematic, hierarchical classification of XSS payloads. In addition, we present a comprehensive sur- vey of publicly documented XSS payloads which is structured according to our proposed classification scheme. Secondly, we explore defensive mechanisms which dynamically prevent the execution of some payload types without eliminating the actual vulnerability. More specifically, we discuss the design and implementation of countermeasures against the XSS payloads “Session Hijacking”, “Cross-site Request Forgery”, and attacks that target intranet re- sources. We build upon this and introduce a general methodology for developing such countermeasures: We determine a necessary set of basic capabilities an adversary needs for successfully executing an attack through an analysis of the targeted payload type. The resulting countermeasure relies on revoking one of these capabilities, which in turn renders the payload infeasible. Finally, we present two language-based approaches that prevent XSS and related vul- nerabilities: We identify the implicit mixing of data and code during string-based syn- tax assembly as the root cause of string-based code injection attacks.
    [Show full text]