Description of A survey on the security of cloud computing (Scientific Paper) presented at ICCAIS 2019 in Riyadh

1. A SURVEY ON THE SECURITY OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Intensive Study ofAttacks and Possible Threats at Different Layers of Cloud Computing
Presented by:
Lubna SulaimanAlHenaki
Computer Science Department
King Saud University
Riyadh, SaudiArabia
Lubna.henaki@gmail.com

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Outlines
 Introduction
 Cloud Computing Overview
 Security in Cloud
 Threats on Cloud Computing Environment and their Countermeasures.
 Attacks on Cloud Computing Environment and their Countermeasures.
 Conclusion

3. Introduction to Cloud Computing
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
Introduction
 Cloud Computing technology has been broadly utilized in many fields.
 Cloud Computing add more convenience at several levels.
 Cloud Computing security is an essential subdomain of computer security
 The fact that cloud computing services are based on Internet connection
makes them vulnerable to a variety of attacks and security threats.
 Security of the provided services makes a primary concern to both the
cloud users and the service providers.

5. Overview on Cloud Computing
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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6. Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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Cloud Computing (NIST) Definition
 Cloud Computing is defined by NIST (National Institute of
Standards and Technology) as:
“A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network
access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,
networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be
rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or
service provider interaction.”

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Architecture of Cloud Computing
1. Software-as-a-service (SaaS): This service allows the
customers to utilize applications that are hosted in the
cloud server and delivered to them over the internet.
2. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS): This layer allows developers
to efficiently write and develop applications like SaaS. It
makes an economic option for developers.
3. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS): Provides fundamental
infrastructure to the above layers. it provides services like
networking hardware, servers, operating systems, storage
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Cloud Service Models

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Deployment Model of Cloud Computing
1. Public Cloud
Hardware and software resources are
publicly shared among different users.
2. Private Cloud
all the clouds systems and services are
only accessible within the boundary of
that organization

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Deployment Model of Cloud Computing
3. Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud is a combination of two or
more clouds that have different types
4. Community Cloud
Cloud services are usually intended for
specific individuals or organizations who
share the same Cloud requirements.

10. Security on Cloud Computing
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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11. Cloud Computing Security Requirements
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SecurityRequirements
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
Accountability
• The main objective of the CC system is to reduce the cost of
the hardware and provides services for each client needs.
• The CC system challenges scalability for both infrastructure
and data platform.
• In CC there is four main security requirements to ensure
privacy and serve a secure cloud services.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion

12. Threats on Cloud Computing Environment and
Countermeasures
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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13. Threats on Cloud Computing Environment
Data loss.
Data breaches.
Malicious Insiders.
Account, service and traffic hijacking.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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14. Data Loss
 Losing the data can be occurred from various reasons.
 Data can be lost due to applying operations by-mistake of deletion or alteration.
 Natural causes are also considered, e.g. earthquakes, fires etc.
 Sidekick smart phones suffered from this threat.
In Cloud Computing, this threat affects the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Cloud services.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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15. Data Loss
Organizations should apply the following mitigation techniques to be
protected against this type of threats:
 Provide data storage and backup mechanisms.
 Using proper encryption techniques.
Legally indicating supplier support and maintenance techniques.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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16. Data Breaches
 Data breach is the leakage of critical information to unauthorized parties, so that those
malicious people would have access to the network and its sensitive data.
 It occurs due to many causes such as incorrect authentication and authorization mechanisms,
reviewing controls, undependable use of encryption keys and operating system failure.
 Unfortunately, although data leakage is a critical threat to Cloud Computing, the solutions to
mitigate it can cause other threats to be raised.
 Sony PlayStation Network suffered from this threat.
In Cloud Computing, this threat affects the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Cloud services.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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17. Data Breaches
Organizations should apply the following mitigation techniques to be
protected against this type of threats:
Analyze data at both design and runtime for protection.
 Employing strong encryption key generation, storage, and management.
 Indicating Cloud provider and ensuring the safety of their files and communications.
 Implementing strong Application Programming Interfaces (API).
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18. Malicious Insiders
 The malicious insider threat raised from trusted people within the Cloud organization who
have authorized access to the organization assets and items of value.
 These people can apply unprivileged operations to cause harm to the organization’s assets.
 The harm can be financial, technical failure or resources losing by applying what seems to be
legal activities e.g. developing malicious firewalls.
 It is a well-known fact that most security threats arise from the inside of an organization.
In Cloud Computing, this threat affects the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Cloud services.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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19. Malicious Insiders
Organizations should apply the following mitigation techniques to be
protected against this type of threats:
 Apply human resource management as part of a legal agreement.
 A compliance reporting system will help determine the security breach notification so that,
appropriate action may be taken against a person who has committed a fraud.
 Non-disclosure of the employees’ privileges and how they are monitored.
Introduction Overview on CC CC Security CC Threats CC Attacks Conclusion
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20. Account, Service and Traffic Hijacking
 Account or service hijacking happens if an attacker gains the login information of some
account, which made the hacked account a launching base for the attacker.
 In Cloud account hijacking, a malicious intruder can use the stolen credentials to hijack the
Cloud services and then they can enter on other’s transactions, add incorrect information and
divert users to illegal websites causing legal issues for Cloud service providers.
 Amazon suffered from this threat.
In Cloud Computing, this threat affects the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Cloud services.
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21. Organizations should apply the following mitigation techniques to be
protected against this type of threats:
 Appropriate understanding of security policies and service level agreement.
 Using a strong multi-factor authentication will form extra security check for the identification of
users.
 Strict and continuous monitoring to detect unauthorized activities.
 Prevent sharing credentials among customers and services.
Account, Service and Traffic Hijacking
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22. Attacks on Cloud Computing Environment and
Countermeasures
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23. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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24. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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25. Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
 Attacker sends a superfluous request and make the server down and overloaded.
 Distributed DoS attack (DDoS) which is extended from DoS attacks that attacker use numerous
network hosts to inflict more devastating effects to its victim.
 European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) reported that Dropbox was attacked
by DDoS attacks and suffered a substantial loss of service for more than 15 hours affecting all
users.
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26. Countermeasures of Denial of Service Attacks
 Reduce the privileges of the user that connected to a server.
 Using the filter-based approach.
 Using the signature-based approach.
 Using Intrusion Detection System (IDS)/Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).
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27. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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28. Authentication Attacks
 The attackers target the mechanism and methods used by the user to
authenticate the system.
 The mechanism used for authentication is captured and attackers tries to
access the confidential information.
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Password:
94Gah4562834
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29. Countermeasures of Authentication Attacks
 Using strong password policies.
 Using a better authentication mechanism.
 Using advanced authentication attacks such as One-Time Password (OTP).
 Encrypt communication channels to secure authentication tokens.
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30. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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31. Structured Query Language (SQL) Injection Attacks
 SQL attack is used to steal user information from the web application by inserting malicious
code to inject into the web application as a user input.
 According to the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) which lists the SQL injection
attack as the top 10 most critical web application security risks.
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32. Countermeasures of SQL Injection Attacks
A proper validation of input data can mitigate SQL Injection attack.
Access Control permission on the database must be strictly defined.
Avoid using dynamically generated SQL into the code.
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33. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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34. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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35. Phishing Attacks
 Hacker creates the same script as like the trusted cloud site to steal passwords and email from you.
 Phishing attack applied by making the same page like cloud site page then registered a domain that is
similar to your cloud provides like www.droppbox.com, then retrieve your personal information.
 200 million of users in Facebook are targeted by the phishing attack.
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Lubna
Hi Lubna,
We just need to verify your email address before you sign up
Is complete!
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36. Countermeasures of Phishing Attacks
Using secure web link Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPS).
Identifying the spam emails.
Don’t click on short Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
Don’t click when someone force you to click.
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37. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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38. Port Scanning Attacks
 The attacker use open ports that belong to a connection to gain exact
information about the working environment and running application
processes.
The attacker can seize information with the help of open ports like services
that run on a system, IP and Medium Access Control (MAC) addresses.
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39. Countermeasures of Port Scanning Attacks
 Close all unused ports.
 Remove all unnecessary services.
 Filter out all unnecessary traffic.
 Firewall.
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40. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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41. Man in the Middle (MITM) Attacks
An attacker splits connection and rejoins with the attackers own computer
system.
Man in the Middle Attacks happens if secure socket layer is not properly
configured.
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42. Countermeasures of Man in the Middle Attacks
Using encryption and decryption algorithm.
Required a proper Secure Socket Layer architecture.
Using Intrusion Detection system.
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43. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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44. Metadata Spoofing Attacks
 Web Services Description Language (WSDL) stored the descriptions about service functionality
and details.
The attacker manipulates / re-engineers the metadata content of a web service so that the web
service's intended operation is replaced by another operation.
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45. Countermeasures of Metadata Spoofing Attacks
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 Encrypted information about service functionality and other details.
 Strong authentication should be required to access the file.
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46. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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47. Side Channel Attacks
 It occurs when an attacker places a malicious virtual machine on the same physical machine as
the victim machine so that he can access all the confidential information on the victim's machine.
 Placement and extraction are the main steps of side channel attacks.
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48. Countermeasures of Side Channel Attacks
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Using virtual firewall.
Using encryption and decryption.
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49. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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50. Virtual Machines Rollback Attacks
 The attacker takes advantage of VM from an old snapshot and run it without the user’s
awareness.
The attacker can get the password for VM through launches a brute-force attack.
This attack can prevent by using suspend and resume.
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51. Attacks in a Cloud Computing Environment and Countermeasures
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52. Virtual Machines Escape Attacks
 The attacker’s program running in a VM breaks the isolation layer.
 This allows an attacker to interact directly with the hypervisor.
 Therefore, VM Escape from the isolation is provided by the virtual layer.
 As results, an attacker gets access to the host OS and the other VMs running on the physical
machine.
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53. Countermeasures of Virtual Machines Escape Attacks
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 Using of secure hypervisor.
 Configuring the host/guest interactions.
 Monitor hypervisor activities.
 VM Isolation is required.
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Conclusion

55. Conclusion
 Cloud Computing has witnessed significant advances and become widely adopted in different
areas.
 Security poses a major challenge to its widespread adoption.
 We reviewed the significant attacks threatening the security of Cloud Computing.
 Solutions and countermeasures are pointed out to serve as a reference for comparative analysis.
 Understanding the various Cloud security issues and the means possible to overcome them.
 Similar studies helps to mitigating the risk associated with the adoption of Cloud Computing
technology.
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56. Thank You!
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