Integrity Verification of Distributed Nodes in Critical Infrastructures

Abstract

The accuracy and reliability of time synchronization and distribution are essential requirements for many critical infrastructures, including telecommunication networks, where 5G technologies place increasingly stringent conditions in terms of maintaining highly accurate time. A lack of synchronization between the clocks causes a malfunction of the 5G network, preventing it from providing a high quality of service; this makes the time distribution network a very viable target for attacks. Various solutions have been analyzed to mitigate attacks on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio-frequency spectrum and the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) used for time distribution over the network. This paper highlights the significance of monitoring the integrity of the software and configurations of the infrastructural nodes of a time distribution network. Moreover, this work proposes an attestation scheme, based on the Trusted Computing principles, capable of detecting both software violations on the nodes and hardware attacks aimed at tampering with the configuration of the GNSS receivers. The proposed solution has been implemented and validated on a testbed representing a typical synchronization distribution network. The results, simulating various types of adversaries, emphasize the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a wide range of typical attacks and the certain limitations that need to be addressed to enhance the security of the current GNSS receivers.

Distributed and Lightweight Software Assurance in Cellular Broadcasting Handshake and Connection Establishment

“…Related to our goal are the previous works in trusted computing that studied the remote code attestation using both the software and the hardware security (e.g., trusted platform module and trusted execution environment), real-time interactive protocols for providing fresh evidence (e.g., challenge and response), and a remote trusted server, e.g., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Some of the aforementioned previous research specifically focused on the wireless and mobile networking context [34][35][36][37] and is thus especially related to our work.…”

“…Related to our goal are the previous works in trusted computing that studied the remote code attestation using both the software and the hardware security (e.g., trusted platform module and trusted execution environment), real-time interactive protocols for providing fresh evidence (e.g., challenge and response), and a remote trusted server, e.g., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Some of the aforementioned previous research specifically focused on the wireless and mobile networking context [34][35][36][37] and is thus especially related to our work. In [34], the authors proposed two attestation protocols for wireless sensor networks where the base station and the sensor node use node-specific identities during attestation and involve additional networking communications, including the challenge-response protocol (to authenticate the attestation request).…”

Mitigating Software Integrity Attacks With Trusted Computing in a Time Distribution Network

“…To resume, the Verifier performs the following operations: 1) checks the TPM quote signature; 2) validates that the ML entries match the value of PCR 10; 3) checks whether the files in the ML are the same ones as in the Verifier's whitelist (golden values) and their digests must match. A more detailed explanation of this process can be found also in [72] and [78].…”