Workflow Based Security Incident Management Meletis A. Belsis 1 , Alkis Simitsis 2 , Stefanos Gritzalis 1 (1) University of the Aegean Dept. of Information and Communication Systems Eng. meletis_belsis@yahoo.com, sgritz@aegean.gr (2) National Technical University of Athens Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering [email_address]

(1) University of the Aegean

Dept. of Information and Communication Systems Eng.

meletis_belsis@yahoo.com, sgritz@aegean.gr

(2) National Technical University of Athens

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

[email_address]

Outline Introduction Incident Collection ETL Workflows System Architecture for the Incident Management Conclusions M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Introduction

Incident Collection

ETL Workflows

System Architecture for the Incident Management

Conclusions

Introduction A Security incident is some set of events that involve an attack or series of attacks at one or more sites (John D. Howard) Security incidents are not an one step process a security incident is some set of events involves an attack or a series of attacks at one or more sites may involve one or more criminals may take place in different tide may take place from different geographical locations Storing such incident information is an invaluable tool to users, administrators and managers. M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

A Security incident is some set of events that involve an attack or series of attacks at one or more sites (John D. Howard)

Security incidents are not an one step process

a security incident is some set of events

involves an attack or a series of attacks

at one or more sites

may involve one or more criminals

may take place in different tide

may take place from different geographical locations

Storing such incident information is an invaluable tool to users, administrators and managers.

Background Today many incident databases exist Most of them follow the Balkanised Model Examples of such include the IBM’s VuLDA NIST ICAT Ohio University IDB Many efforts have been made to form a central approach to incident information storage CERT/CC Europe S3000 Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL) Cerias Incident Response Database (CIRDB) Incident Object Description and Exchange Format (IODEF) M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Today many incident databases exist

Most of them follow the Balkanised Model

Examples of such include the

IBM’s VuLDA

NIST ICAT

Ohio University IDB

Many efforts have been made to form a central approach to incident information storage

CERT/CC

Europe S3000

Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL)

Cerias Incident Response Database (CIRDB)

Incident Object Description and Exchange Format (IODEF)

Background M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005 IODEF Incident Data Model

Motivation Current incident databases use different schemas and format. Today experts and law enforcement units require the complete picture of an incident before taking decisions. Unfortunately forcing experts around the world to a use common structure is difficult if possible at all. What is needed is an infrastructure that can collect and integrate information from different incident databases Delivering such a structure incorporates providing solutions to a number of problems gathering export snapshots/differentials transportation transformations cleaning issues efficient loading M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Current incident databases use different schemas and format.

Today experts and law enforcement units require the complete picture of an incident before taking decisions.

Unfortunately forcing experts around the world to a use common structure is difficult if possible at all.

What is needed is an infrastructure that can collect and integrate information from different incident databases

Delivering such a structure incorporates providing solutions to a number of problems

gathering

export snapshots/differentials

transportation

transformations

cleaning issues

efficient loading

Contributions We employ advance database techniques to tackle the problem of designing a centralized incident DBMS We identify the main problems that are underlying the population of a central incident database We propose a method based on ETL workflows for the incremental maintenance of such a centralized database We present a framework for incident correlation in order to keep track of a full attack that its component incidents are stored in different databases M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

We employ advance database techniques to tackle the problem of designing a centralized incident DBMS

We identify the main problems that are underlying the population of a central incident database

We propose a method based on ETL workflows for the incremental maintenance of such a centralized database

We present a framework for incident correlation in order to keep track of a full attack that its component incidents are stored in different databases

Outline Introduction Incident Collection ETL Workflows System Architecture for the Incident Management Conclusions M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Introduction

Incident Collection

ETL Workflows

System Architecture for the Incident Management

Conclusions

Incident Collection M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Incident Collection In terms of the transformation tasks , there are two main classes of problems conflicts and problems at the schema level data level transformations (i.e., at the instance level ) More specifically Naming conflicts homonyms synonyms Structural conflicts Data formatting String Problems ‘ Hewlett Packard’ vs. ‘HP’ vs. ‘Hioulet Pakard’ M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

In terms of the transformation tasks , there are two main classes of problems

conflicts and problems at the schema level

data level transformations (i.e., at the instance level )

More specifically

Naming conflicts

homonyms

synonyms

Structural conflicts

Data formatting

String Problems

‘ Hewlett Packard’ vs. ‘HP’ vs. ‘Hioulet Pakard’

Incident Collection A problem the time window for the population of the centralized database is rather too small to repeat the same job more than once ... a solution instead of extracting, transforming, and loading all the data, we are interested only to those incident records that have been changed during the last execution of the process this means that we are interested only to the incident data that are newly inserted updated deleted M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

A problem

the time window for the population of the centralized database is rather too small to repeat the same job more than once

... a solution

instead of extracting, transforming, and loading all the data, we are interested only to those incident records that have been changed during the last execution of the process

this means that we are interested only to the incident data that are

newly inserted

updated

deleted

Outline Introduction Incident Collection ETL Workflows System Architecture for the Incident Management Conclusions M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Introduction

Incident Collection

ETL Workflows

System Architecture for the Incident Management

Conclusions

ETL Workflows M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005 More informations can be found at: http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~asimi/

ETL Workflows Extraction-Transformation-Loading (ETL) tools can be used to facilitate the population of a centralized incident database from several different incident DBs are pieces of software responsible for the extraction of data from several sources, their cleansing, their customization, their transformation in order to fit business needs, and finally, their loading into a central DB their most prominent tasks include the identification of relevant information at the source side the extraction of this information the transportation of this information to the Data Staging Area (DSA), where all the transformations take place the transformation, (i.e., customization and integration) of the information coming from multiple sources into a common format the cleaning of the resulting data set, on the basis of database and business rules the propagation and loading of the data to a central DB M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Extraction-Transformation-Loading (ETL) tools

can be used to facilitate the population of a centralized incident database from several different incident DBs

are pieces of software responsible for the extraction of data from several sources, their cleansing, their customization, their transformation in order to fit business needs, and finally, their loading into a central DB

their most prominent tasks include

the identification of relevant information at the source side

the extraction of this information

the transportation of this information to the Data Staging Area (DSA), where all the transformations take place

the transformation, (i.e., customization and integration) of the information coming from multiple sources into a common format

the cleaning of the resulting data set, on the basis of database and business rules

the propagation and loading of the data to a central DB

Outline Introduction Incident Collection ETL Workflows System Architecture for the Incident Management Conclusions M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Introduction

Incident Collection

ETL Workflows

System Architecture for the Incident Management

Conclusions

System Architecture The system proposed, is based on the OMG’s CORBA architecture. CORBA allows for the addition of new services on demand. CORBA is transperent from client applications, OS, and platform. Registered law enforcement units will be able to access incident information through the WEB Data are going to be collected from CSIRT databases on a daily basis M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005 www.dcs.fmph.uniba.sk

The system proposed, is based on the OMG’s CORBA architecture.

CORBA allows for the addition of new services on demand.

CORBA is transperent from client applications, OS, and platform.

Registered law enforcement units will be able to access incident information through the WEB

Data are going to be collected from CSIRT databases on a daily basis

System Architecture Incident data are protected during transit using the CORBA’s Security Service Protocol (SECP) using the SSL protocol The final Corba’s security API will provide Security at level 3 with a Common Secure Interoperability at level 0 in order to disallow privilege delegation. M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Incident data are protected during transit using the CORBA’s Security Service Protocol (SECP) using the SSL protocol

The final Corba’s security API will provide Security at level 3 with a Common Secure Interoperability at level 0 in order to disallow privilege delegation.

System Architecture M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Outline Introduction Incident Collection ETL Workflows System Architecture for the Incident Management Conclusions M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Introduction

Incident Collection

ETL Workflows

System Architecture for the Incident Management

Conclusions

Conclusions This research delivers a framework for automated incident information collection. The collection and correlation of incident related data is vital Incident data collected from different sources need to be cleaned and homogenized before a centrally stored. We try to minimize the time window between the appearance of an incident and its worldwide publication. Automated correlation of incident information will allow law enforcement units to pursuit the criminals M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

This research delivers a framework for automated incident information collection.

The collection and correlation of incident related data is vital

Incident data collected from different sources need to be cleaned and homogenized before a centrally stored.

We try to minimize the time window between the appearance of an incident and its worldwide publication.

Automated correlation of incident information will allow law enforcement units to pursuit the criminals

Future Work Select an incident structure able to store information received from diverse databases Currently we review two potential candidates :IODEF and IDM. Optimization of the ETL process to enable incident information correlation during the collection process Correlation of information stored on the central database using data mining techniques Allow the public community to securely access incident information using database personalized views M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Select an incident structure able to store information received from diverse databases

Currently we review two potential candidates :IODEF and IDM.

Optimization of the ETL process to enable incident information correlation during the collection process

Correlation of information stored on the central database using data mining techniques

Allow the public community to securely access incident information using database personalized views

Thank You! Belsis Meletis M. Belsis, A. Simitsis, S. Gritzalis @ PCI'05, Volos, 13/11/2005

Thank You!

Belsis Meletis