CAREER: Empowering Attacker-Centric Security Analysis of Network Protocols

该项目的目标是提高互联网所依赖的广泛网络协议的安全性。不幸的是，互联网一直在快速发展，但其最初的设计并没有考虑到安全性。在实践中，这导致了不断被发现的永无止境的网络攻击流。防御者被迫对这些新的和创造性的攻击做出反应，没有必要的工具来理解和预测它们。提议的项目旨在主动识别和分析协议缺陷，并领先于攻击者。特别是，该项目将开发一套创新和及时的技术、工具和见解，使开发人员和研究人员能够分析网络协议，识别其弱点，并在早期进行纠正。通过提供更安全的网络环境，其结果将使所有互联网用户受益。具体来说，这项研究的动机是以下观察。首先，网络协议在很大程度上忽略了诸如侧信道之类的新兴威胁。其次，网络攻击变得越来越复杂，出现了新的威胁模型，如本地和远程攻击者的合作。第三，网络协议及其与环境的交互变得越来越复杂，特别是考虑到网络中间件、基于主机的防火墙和审查防火墙等的流行。该研究将开发程序分析和网络测量技术的结合，以系统地发现各种网络协议中的漏洞。从该项目中获得的见解将使协议的设计和实现变得更好、更安全。

The objective of this project is to improve the security of a wide range of network protocols that the Internet relies on. Unfortunately, the Internet has been evolving at a rapid rate but its initial design did not take security into consideration. In practice, this leads to a never-ending stream of network attacks that are continuously being discovered. The defenders are forced into a reactive position to these new and creative attacks, without having the necessary tools to understand and anticipate them. The proposed project aims to identify and analyze protocol flaws proactively and stay ahead of attackers. In particular, the project will develop a set of innovative and timely techniques, tools, and insights that will empower developers and researchers to analyze network protocols, identify their weaknesses, and correct them early on. The results will benefit all Internet users by providing a more secure network environment overall. Specifically, the research is motivated by the following observations. First, emerging threats such as side channels have been largely overlooked in network protocols. Second, network attacks are getting more sophisticated, with new threat models such as cooperating local and remote attackers. Third, the network protocols and their interactions with the environment are getting more complex, especially when considering the prevalence of network middleboxes, host-based firewalls, and censorship firewalls, etc. The research will develop a combination of program analysis and network measurement techniques to systematically uncover vulnerabilities in a variety of network protocols. The insights gained from the project will enable better and more secure design and implementation of protocols.