TC: Small: Protection Mechanisms for Portable Storage

诸如USB闪存驱动器的便携式存储设备在日常生活中已经变得几乎无处不在。它们对大学生和战场上的士兵传输数据一样有用。然而，使用这些设备所带来的安全风险实在是真实的：在闪存驱动器上的恶意代码感染了运营网络，允许随后发布到维基解密的机密数据大规模泄露后，国防部禁止了这些设备。这些事件暴露出的安全漏洞所引起的关注远远超出了军事领域，并扩展到便携式存储的任何用户。虽然已经作出了无数的尝试，以确保主机免受恶意设备，很少有研究考虑对称的问题，确保保护敏感数据从潜在的危害主机，也没有USB总线本身的安全性。本项目探讨的因素，有助于便携式存储设备的脆弱性，并考虑一个新的框架建模和评估这些设备的安全性。我们将考虑存储设备本身的安全性，它们所连接的主机以及传输数据的USB接口。我们考虑的方法来监控连接的主机的完整性，并研究如何建立和管理主机的身份。我们提出了基于这些设备的应用程序，如维护存储数据的出处和取证信息，以及支持信息流的新框架，以进一步实施更细粒度的访问保护。这些进步将确保闪存驱动器及其连接的主机保持安全和可靠。

Portable storage devices such as USB flash drives have become virtually ubiquitous in daily life. They are as useful to students in college as to a soldier transferring data in a combat theater. However, the security risks posed by using these devices are all too real: after malicious code on a flash drive infected operational networks, allowing a mass exfiltration of classified data subsequently posted to Wikileaks, the Department of Defense banned these devices. The security vulnerabilities exposed by these events are of concern far beyond the military and extend to any user of portable storage. While numerous attempts have been made to secure hosts from malicious devices, very little research has considered the symmetrical problem of ensuring the protection of sensitive data from potentially compromised hosts, nor the security of the USB bus itself.This project examines the factors contributing to the vulnerability of portable storage devices and consider a new framework for modeling and evaluating the security of these devices. We will consider the security of the storage devices themselves, the hosts they attach to, and the USB interface that transports the data. We consider methods of monitoring the integrity of attached hosts, and examine how to establish and manage host identity. We propose applications based on these devices, such as maintaining provenance and forensic information on stored data, and new frameworks supporting information flow for further enforcing finer-grained access protections. Such advances will ensure that flash drives and hosts they attach to remain safe and secure.