Privacy of RFID - models and protocols

Radio Frequency Identification is a wireless identification method that utilizes the reception of electromagnetic radio waves. This research has proposed a novel model to allow for an in-depth security analysis of current protocols and developed new flexible protocols that can be adapted to offer either stronger security or better efficiency.

Modelling client puzzles and denial-of-service resistant protocols

Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are a growing concern to networked services like the Internet. In recent years, major Internet e-commerce and government sites have been disabled due to various DoS attacks. A common form of DoS attack is a resource depletion attack, in which an attacker tries to overload the server's resources, such as memory or computational power, rendering the server unable to service honest clients. A promising way to deal with this problem is for a defending server to identify and segregate malicious traffic as earlier as possible. Client puzzles, also known as proofs of work, have been shown to be a promising tool to thwart DoS attacks in network protocols, particularly in authentication protocols. In this thesis, we design efficient client puzzles and propose a stronger security model to analyse client puzzles. We revisit a few key establishment protocols to analyse their DoS resilient properties and strengthen them using existing and novel techniques. Our contributions in the thesis are manifold. We propose an efficient client puzzle that enjoys its security in the standard model under new computational assumptions. Assuming the presence of powerful DoS attackers, we find a weakness in the most recent security model proposed to analyse client puzzles and this study leads us to introduce a better security model for analysing client puzzles. We demonstrate the utility of our new security definitions by including two hash based stronger client puzzles. We also show that using stronger client puzzles any protocol can be converted into a provably secure DoS resilient key exchange protocol. In other contributions, we analyse DoS resilient properties of network protocols such as Just Fast Keying (JFK) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). In the JFK protocol, we identify a new DoS attack by applying Meadows' cost based framework to analyse DoS resilient properties. We also prove that the original security claim of JFK does not hold. Then we combine an existing technique to reduce the server cost and prove that the new variant of JFK achieves perfect forward secrecy (the property not achieved by original JFK protocol) and secure under the original security assumptions of JFK. Finally, we introduce a novel cost shifting technique which reduces the computation cost of the server significantly and employ the technique in the most important network protocol, TLS, to analyse the security of the resultant protocol. We also observe that the cost shifting technique can be incorporated in any Diffine{Hellman based key exchange protocol to reduce the Diffie{Hellman exponential cost of a party by one multiplication and one addition.

On the security of TLS renegotiation

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is the most widely used security protocol on the Internet. It supports negotiation of a wide variety of cryptographic primitives through different cipher suites, various modes of client authentication, and additional features such as renegotiation. Despite its widespread use, only recently has the full TLS protocol been proven secure, and only the core cryptographic protocol with no additional features. These additional features have been the cause of several practical attacks on TLS. In 2009, Ray and Dispensa demonstrated how TLS renegotiation allows an attacker to splice together its own session with that of a victim, resulting in a man-in-the-middle attack on TLS-reliant applications such as HTTP. TLS was subsequently patched with two defence mechanisms for protection against this attack. We present the first formal treatment of renegotiation in secure channel establishment protocols. We add optional renegotiation to the authenticated and confidential channel establishment model of Jager et al., an adaptation of the Bellare--Rogaway authenticated key exchange model. We describe the attack of Ray and Dispensa on TLS within our model. We show generically that the proposed fixes for TLS offer good protection against renegotiation attacks, and give a simple new countermeasure that provides renegotiation security for TLS even in the face of stronger adversaries.

Security ceremonies : including humans in cryptographic protocols

Whether by using electronic banking, by using credit cards, or by synchronising a mobile telephone via Bluetooth to an in-car system, humans are a critical part in many cryptographic protocols daily. We reduced the gap that exists between the theory and the reality of the security of these cryptographic protocols involving humans, by creating tools and techniques for proofs and implementations of human-followable security. After three human research studies, we present a model for capturing human recognition; we provide a tool for generating values called Computer-HUman Recognisable Nonces (CHURNs); and we provide a model for capturing human perceptible freshness.

Air Gondwana and Mosswood Manor : blended learning environments utilising second life machinima to teach negotiation skills

Seminal reports into higher education in Australia and overseas have recognised negotiation as an essential skill of a practising lawyer and have recommended that all law schools include instruction in negotiation theory and practice in their curricula. Effective negotiation training includes the elements of instruction, modelling, practice and feedback. Ideally such training takes place in the context of small groups. However, this does not necessarily mean that negotiation cannot be taught effectively in the context of large groups. This paper discusses two related blended learning environments that provide instruction in negotiation theory and practice as part of the graduate capabilities program of the undergraduate law degree in the School of Law at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Air Gondwana, which forms part of the curriculum of the two first year Contract Law subjects, and Mosswood Manor, which forms part of the curriculum of the second year Trusts subject, utilise a common narrative concerning the family of a wealthy industrialist to facilitate learning of negotiation skills. The programs both combine online and in-class components, the online components utilising machinima (computer graphics created without the need for professional software) to depict the narrative. This strategy has enabled the creation of effective, engaging and challenging learning experiences for large cohorts of students studying by different modes (full-time, part-time and distance external). The use of a common narrative, including the same characters and settings, in the two programs also provides a familiar environment in which students advance their learning from one level of attainment to the next.

Ergodic capacity and outage performance of amplify-and-forward protocols

This thesis analyses the performance bounds of amplify-and-forward relay channels which are becoming increasingly popular in wireless communication applications. The statistics of cascaded Nakagami-m fading model which is a major obstacle in evaluating the outage of wireless networks is analysed using Mellin transform. Furthermore, the upper and the lower bounds for the ergodic capacity of the slotted amplify-and-forward relay channel, for finite and infinite number of relays are derived using random matrix theory. The results obtained will enable wireless network designers to optimize the network resources, benefiting the consumers.

Introducing standardized protocols for anthropological measurement of virtual subadult crania using computed tomography

Objectives This study introduces and assesses the precision of a standardized protocol for anthropometric measurement of the juvenile cranium using three-dimensional surface rendered models, for implementation in forensic investigation or paleodemographic research. Materials and methods A subset of multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) DICOM datasets (n=10) of modern Australian subadults (birth—10 years) was accessed from the “Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology Virtual Osteological Database” (n>1200), obtained from retrospective clinical scans taken at Brisbane children hospitals (2009–2013). The capabilities of Geomagic Design X™ form the basis of this study; introducing standardized protocols using triangle surface mesh models to (i) ascertain linear dimensions using reference plane networks and (ii) calculate the area of complex regions of interest on the cranium. Results The protocols described in this paper demonstrate high levels of repeatability between five observers of varying anatomical expertise and software experience. Intra- and inter-observer error was indiscernible with total technical error of measurement (TEM) values ≤0.56 mm, constituting <0.33% relative error (rTEM) for linear measurements; and a TEM value of ≤12.89 mm2, equating to <1.18% (rTEM) of the total area of the anterior fontanelle and contiguous sutures. Conclusions Exploiting the advances of MSCT in routine clinical assessment, this paper assesses the application of this virtual approach to acquire highly reproducible morphometric data in a non-invasive manner for human identification and population studies in growth and development. The protocols and precision testing presented are imperative for the advancement of “virtual anthropology” into routine Australian medico-legal death investigation.

Formal analysis of security properties in trusted computing protocols

This research introduces a general methodology in order to create a Coloured Petri Net (CPN) model of a security protocol. Then standard or user-defined security properties of the created CPN model are identified. After adding an attacker model to the protocol model, the security property is verified using state space method. This approach is applied to analyse a number of trusted computing protocols. The results show the applicability of proposed method to analyse both standard and user-defined properties.

Does counting still count? Revisiting the security of counting based user authentication protocols against statistical attacks

At NDSS 2012, Yan et al. analyzed the security of several challenge-response type user authentication protocols against passive observers, and proposed a generic counting based statistical attack to recover the secret of some counting based protocols given a number of observed authentication sessions. Roughly speaking, the attack is based on the fact that secret (pass) objects appear in challenges with a different probability from non-secret (decoy) objects when the responses are taken into account. Although they mentioned that a protocol susceptible to this attack should minimize this difference, they did not give details as to how this can be achieved barring a few suggestions. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap by generalizing the attack with a much more comprehensive theoretical analysis. Our treatment is more quantitative which enables us to describe a method to theoretically estimate a lower bound on the number of sessions a protocol can be safely used against the attack. Our results include 1) two proposed fixes to make counting protocols practically safe against the attack at the cost of usability, 2) the observation that the attack can be used on non-counting based protocols too as long as challenge generation is contrived, 3) and two main design principles for user authentication protocols which can be considered as extensions of the principles from Yan et al. This detailed theoretical treatment can be used as a guideline during the design of counting based protocols to determine their susceptibility to this attack. The Foxtail protocol, one of the protocols analyzed by Yan et al., is used as a representative to illustrate our theoretical and experimental results.

Introduction to the special issue on next generation network architectures, protocols, theory, systems and applications

This special issue of Networking Science focuses on Next Generation Network (NGN) that enables the deployment of access independent services over converged fixed and mobile networks. NGN is a packet-based network and uses the Internet protocol (IP) to transport the various types of traffic (voice, video, data and signalling). NGN facilitates easy adoption of distributed computing applications by providing high speed connectivity in a converged networked environment. It also makes end user devices and applications highly intelligent and efficient by empowering them with programmability and remote configuration options. However, there are a number of important challenges in provisioning next generation network technologies in a converged communication environment. Some preliminary challenges include those that relate to QoS, switching and routing, management and control, and security which must be addressed on an urgent or emergency basis. The consideration of architectural issues in the design and pro- vision of secure services for NGN deserves special attention and hence is the main theme of this special issue.

Protocols : Reframe : QUT's evaluation framework

Reframe is changing our approach to the evaluation of courses, units, teaching and student experience at QUT. We are moving away from a single survey tool to a richer, more holistic and customisable approach. These protocols allows academic staff and administrators access to the ways in which the policy is enacted through process.

Adolescent pedometer protocols : examining reactivity, tampering and participants' perceptions

The aim of this study was to investigate adolescents' potential reactivity and tampering while wearing pedometers by comparing different monitoring protocols to accelerometer output. The sample included adolescents (N=123, age range=14-15 years) from three secondary schools in New South Wales, Australia. Schools were randomised to one of the three pedometer monitoring protocols: (i) daily sealed (DS) pedometer group, (ii) unsealed (US) pedometer group or (iii) weekly sealed (WS) pedometer group. Participants wore pedometers (Yamax Digi-Walker CW700, Yamax Corporation, Kumamoto City, Japan) and accelerometers (Actigraph GT3X+, Pensacola, USA) simultaneously for seven days. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine potential reactivity. Bivariate correlations between step counts and accelerometer output were calculated to explore potential tampering. The correlation between accelerometer output and pedometer steps/day was strongest among participants in the WS group (r=0.82, P <= 0.001), compared to the US (r=0.63, P <= 0.001) and DS (r=0.16, P=0.324) groups. The DS (P <= 0.001) and US (P=0.003), but not the WS (P=0.891), groups showed evidence of reactivity. The results suggest that reactivity and tampering does occur in adolescents and contrary to existing research, pedometer monitoring protocols may influence participant behaviour.

Criminological research and institutional ethics protocols : empowering the indigenous other or the academy?

Indigenous commentators have long critiqued the way in which government agencies and member of academic institutions carry out research in their social context. Recently, these commentators have turned their critical gaze upon activities of Research Ethics Boards(REBs). Informed by the reflections on research processes and by Indigenous Canadian and New Zealand research participants, as well as the extant literature, this paper critiques the processes employed by New Zealand REBs to assess Indigenous‐focused or Indigenous‐led research in the criminological realm.

Malleability attacks on multi-party key agreement protocols

Multi-party key agreement protocols indirectly assume that each principal equally contributes to the final form of the key. In this paper we consider three malleability attacks on multi-party key agreement protocols. The first attack, called strong key control allows a dishonest principal (or a group of principals) to fix the key to a pre-set value. The second attack is weak key control in which the key is still random, but the set from which the key is drawn is much smaller than expected. The third attack is named selective key control in which a dishonest principal (or a group of dishonest principals) is able to remove a contribution of honest principals to the group key. The paper discusses the above three attacks on several key agreement protocols, including DH (Diffie-Hellman), BD (Burmester-Desmedt) and JV (Just-Vaudenay). We show that dishonest principals in all three protocols can weakly control the key, and the only protocol which does not allow for strong key control is the DH protocol. The BD and JV protocols permit to modify the group key by any pair of neighboring principals. This modification remains undetected by honest principals.

Analysis of two authorization protocols using Colored Petri Nets

To prevent unauthorized access to protected trusted platform module (TPM) objects, authorization protocols, such as the object-specific authorization protocol (OSAP), have been introduced by the trusted computing group (TCG). By using OSAP, processes trying to gain access to the protected TPM objects need to prove their knowledge of relevant authorization data before access to the objects can be granted. Chen and Ryan’s 2009 analysis has demonstrated OSAP’s authentication vulnerability in sessions with shared authorization data. They also proposed the Session Key Authorization Protocol (SKAP) with fewer stages as an alternative to OSAP. Chen and Ryan’s analysis of SKAP using ProVerif proves the authentication property. The purpose of this paper was to examine the usefulness of Colored Petri Nets (CPN) and CPN Tools for security analysis. Using OSAP and SKAP as case studies, we construct intruder and authentication property models in CPN. CPN Tools is used to verify the authentication property using a Dolev–Yao-based model. Verification of the authentication property in both models using the state space tool produces results consistent with those of Chen and Ryan.