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Unit 4_Cloud-1

Module 4 of cloud computing
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Unit 4_Cloud-1

Module 4 of cloud computing
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Module 4

Cloud Security: Risks, Top concern for cloud users, privacy impact
assessment, trust, OS security, VM Security, Security Risks posed by
shared images and management OS.
• The evolution of computing from isolated systems to interconnected
networks has significantly increased security risks, as malware can
now spread globally and cross-national borders.
• Cybersecurity has become critical as societies rely more heavily on
information infrastructure, with even national critical systems
vulnerable to attacks like those exemplified by the Stuxnet virus and
cyberwarfare.
• Cloud computing, a transformative technology, presents a target-rich
environment for cyber threats, raising security concerns for both
current and potential users.
• While some risks are shared with other network-centric systems, new
methods are expected to address emerging threats, and some
concerns may prove exaggerated over time.
• Despite perceptions that cloud adoption reduces internal security
threats, outsourcing computing introduces new privacy and security
challenges.
• Service-level agreements often fail to offer sufficient legal protection,
leaving cloud users vulnerable to uncontrollable events.
• Overall, security remains a major barrier to the acceptance of cloud
computing, even as its value proposition strengthens.
Cloud security risks
Cloud computing presents significant three broad classes of risks ,
• Security risks including traditional threats,
• Availability issues, and
• Challenges related to third-party data control.
Traditional threats
• The traditional threats begin at the user site. The user must protect the infrastructure used to
connect to the cloud and to interact with the application running on the cloud. This task is more
difficult because some components of this infrastructure are outside the firewall protecting the
user.
• The next threat is related to the authentication and authorization process. The procedures in
place for one individual do not extend to an enterprise. In this case the cloud access of the
members of an organization must be nuanced; individuals should be assigned distinct levels of
privilege based on their roles in the organization
• Moving from the user to the cloud Traditional threats, such as
phishing, DDoS attacks, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting, are
amplified in the cloud due to the scale of resources and shared
environments.
• Multitenancy and vulnerabilities in virtualization open new avenues
for malicious actors, complicating attack tracing and digital forensics.

• Availability concerns stem from system failures, power outages, and


catastrophic events that can disrupt services and lead to data lock-in,
making business operations difficult.
Availability issues
• Availability of cloud services is another major concern.
• System failures, power outages, and other catastrophic events could shut
down cloud services for extended periods of time.
• When such an event occurs, data lock-in, could prevent a large organization
whose business model depends on that data from functioning properly.
• Clouds could also be affected by phase transition phenomena and other
effects specific to complex systems .
• Another critical aspect of availability is that users cannot be assured that
an application hosted on the cloud will return correct results.
Challenges related to third-party data control.
• Third-party control introduces risks due to subcontractors or hardware suppliers with
inadequate trustworthiness or poor-quality resources.
• Data loss or leakage remains a critical issue, especially when proprietary or sensitive data is
stored solely in the cloud.
• Authentication and authorization processes for cloud access require careful consideration,
particularly for organizations, to ensure appropriate privilege levels and policy integration.
• The lack of transparency and limited auditability in cloud environments undermines user
confidence and complicates accountability.
• Security threats specific to cloud environments include insecure APIs, malicious insiders, and
account hijacking, requiring users to adopt vigilant practices.
• The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has identified key threats and proposed measures to
minimize risks, emphasizing the shared responsibility between users and providers.
Surfaces of attacks in a cloud computing environment
Security: The top concern for cloud
users
1.Security Concerns for Cloud Users:
Users are accustomed to having full control of sensitive information within secure perimeters protected by
corporate firewalls. Transitioning trust to cloud service providers (CSPs) is challenging but critical for adopting
cloud benefits.
2. Unauthorized Access and Data Theft:
Data stored in the cloud, especially in storage, is vulnerable to unauthorized access, data theft, and threats
from rogue CSP employees. Users lack transparency in CSP hiring and security policies.
3. Data Lifecycle and Backups:
•Users have limited control over data deletion and lifecycle, with no guarantee of secure deletion or wiping of
media. Seamless CSP backups, done without user consent, increase risks of accidental data loss or exposure.
4. Lack of Standardization and Interoperability:
No current standards for cloud interoperability raise concerns about service interruptions, data accessibility
during outages, and potential high costs of switching CSPs.
5. Auditing and Compliance Challenges:
Full audit trails in cloud environments are not feasible. Users face difficulties ensuring compliance with legal
and privacy requirements due to the distributed and international nature of cloud data handling.
6. Evolving Technology Risks:
Emerging technologies like autonomic computing could introduce self-organizing systems with new
security threats, making attacks and failures harder to detect and mitigate.
7. Multitenancy Risks:
Shared resources in multitenant environments create vulnerabilities, including threats during data
processing and storage, impacting numerous users when breaches occur.
8. Legal and Regulatory Concerns:
Users face challenges navigating the legal frameworks of multiple countries where CSP data centers are
located, further complicated by CSP outsourcing and data-sharing mandates with law enforcement.
9. Mitigation Strategies for Users:
Evaluate CSP security policies, analyze data risks, and establish clear contractual obligations, including
data ownership, storage regions, and liability terms.
10.Data Protection Recommendations:
Avoid processing sensitive data in the cloud where feasible. When necessary, encrypt data to minimize
risks, though encryption poses challenges for indexing and searching. Advanced encryption methods like
homomorphic encryption offer potential solutions.
Privacy and privacy impact
assessment
• General Definition and Importance of Privacy:
1.Definition of Privacy:
1. Privacy is the right to keep personal or proprietary information from being disclosed to others.
2. Recognized globally as a basic human right, e.g., Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
2.Privacy and Legislation:
1. The U.S. Constitution indirectly reflects privacy concerns (e.g., Bill of Rights).
2. In the U.K., privacy is legally protected by the Data Protection Act.
3. The EU has strict privacy laws, including the "right to be forgotten."
3.Challenges in the Digital Era:
1. New threats, such as identity theft from stolen or misused shared personal information.
2. Variations in privacy laws across countries complicate enforcement and compliance.
• Privacy in Cloud Computing:
1.Impact of Public Clouds:
1. Data often resides unencrypted on CSP servers.
2. Privacy risks arise from services requiring personal data, such as location, preferences, and social
network memberships.
2.Privacy Issues with Cloud Models:
1. SaaS (e.g., Gmail): Users lose control over data storage and retention policies.
2. Dynamic provisioning introduces risks related to subcontractors, rights transfer in mergers, or
bankruptcy.
3.Main Privacy Challenges:
1. Lack of User Control: Users cannot control data location or access once stored on CSP servers.
2. Unauthorized Secondary Use: CSPs may monetize user data (e.g., targeted advertising).
3. Data Proliferation: Backup and redundancy practices increase exposure risks.
4. Dynamic Provisioning: Risks from CSP outsourcing and unclear subcontractor roles.
• Tools and Recommendations for Privacy Management:
1.Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA):
1. Tools like PIA evaluate privacy risks and provide reports including risk summaries, security
measures, and compliance with laws.
2. Web-based PIA tools can automate assessments with user input and expert rule-based systems.
2.Legislation Recommendations:
1. Fair Information Practices (Federal Trade Commission):
1. Notice: Clear disclosure of data collection, usage, and sharing practices.
2. Choice: Allow users to control secondary data use internally (e.g., marketing) and externally (e.g., data sharing).
3. Access: Provide users access to their data with options to review, correct, or delete information.
4. Security: Ensure reasonable protection of collected data.
3.Proactive Privacy Approaches:
1. Embed privacy rules into systems during development rather than making reactive changes.
Trust
Trust is an "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something"
(Merriam-Webster).
Operating system security
• Operating systems (OS) manage hardware resources and protect applications from malicious
attacks like unauthorized access, tampering, and spoofing, even on single-user systems.
• Mandatory security, controlled by system administrators, enforces access control,
authentication, and cryptographic policies, while discretionary security relies on users and is
prone to errors.
• Trusted applications operate with minimal privileges, but commercial OSs lack multilayered
security, often reducing the platform's security to its weakest application.
• Trusted paths are vital for secure user interactions, yet many OSs provide only limited
mechanisms for authentication and isolation. Java's sandbox model highlights challenges with
mobile code security, emphasizing the need for robust file system integrity.
• While specialized closed-box platforms offer embedded cryptographic keys, open-box systems
lack similar protections.
• Given these vulnerabilities and the complexity of OSs, application-specific and layered security
solutions are essential for ensuring robust protection in distributed environments.
Virtual machine security
• Virtual machine (VM) security primarily focuses on the traditional system VM model, where a virtual
machine monitor (VMM) manages hardware access, offering stronger isolation and streamlined
security compared to traditional OS processes.
• VMMs, being less complex than OSs, enforce isolation for memory, disk, and network access but
face challenges in higher-level security operations.
• They enable cloning and replication of VMs for reliability and malicious application testing.
• However, attackers can exploit vulnerabilities like VM fingerprinting, logging file access, and insecure
VM images.
• While VM-based systems enhance security through isolation, inspection, and interposition, they
introduce costs like increased hardware requirements, virtualization overhead, and potential threats
like resource starvation, side-channel attacks, and insecure VM deployments.
• Solutions include secure configurations, access controls, and integrity checks for VM images.
• Tools like Livewire and Terra leverage VMM capabilities for intrusion detection and prevention,
emphasizing the potential and challenges of VM-based security.
Security risks posed by shared
images
• Image sharing in cloud environments, particularly in the IaaS model like AWS, poses significant
security risks despite trust in the service provider.
• Many Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) available through public catalogs were found to contain
sensitive data, critical vulnerabilities, and malware due to improper handling by their creators.
• Audits revealed issues such as leftover credentials, backdoors, and insufficient removal of
sensitive data, making these images susceptible to unauthorized access, data theft, and
exploitation.
• Vulnerabilities included remote code execution, shared SSH keys, omitted cloud-init scripts
enabling man-in-the-middle attacks, and compromised system configurations. Malware and
unsolicited connections further amplified risks, with attackers potentially leveraging these flaws
to steal credentials, hijack cloud resources, and compromise user systems.
• The study underscores the need for rigorous security practices in AMI creation, such as
overwriting deleted data, using secure tools, and thorough audits, to mitigate risks for both
image creators and users.
Security risks posed by a
management OS
• While virtualization enhances security by isolating virtual machines (VMs) through hypervisors
with smaller codebases compared to traditional operating systems, risks remain, especially due to
dependencies on the management OS (e.g., Dom0 in Xen-based systems).
• Vulnerabilities in Dom0 can lead to attacks like denial-of-service, unauthorized kernel
modifications, or memory access.
• Communication between Dom0 and DomU, relying on shared memory and split drivers, also
introduces risks such as key extraction or memory compromise.
• Strengthening security requires encrypting sensitive data, monitoring critical hypercalls, and
implementing integrity checks for memory and CPU states.
• Proposed solutions include encrypting virtual memory and CPU contexts during save/restore
operations, using hashes with version numbers for integrity and freshness, and restricting Dom0's
access to DomU memory.
• While these measures improve security, they also introduce overhead, increasing operation times
for domain creation, saving, and restoration by up to 2.3 times.

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