CS 448/548: Survivable Systems and Networks

This page is ALWAYS under construction!!!

Welcome to CS448/548 Survivable Systems and Networks. This course is offered in the Fall Semester 2008 at the University of Idaho. The course is taught by Dr. Axel Krings. The web site used the last time the course was taught can be viewed here, but be aware that each semester the format and material will change to reflect the dynamic behavior of the research area.

This web-page contains information about the course, e.g. syllabus, class notes, pointers to interesting places etc. Material can be down-loaded in pdf and/or postscript format, and will be made available in the updated form as the class goes on. If you have comments, please let me know.

The area of survivable systems and networks has received much attention by government and military initiatives, and the general public became aware of the issues by the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection and documentaries like special issues of PBS's Frontline (e.g. Blackout). Today we are more dependable on computers and communications networks than ever and the implications of the failures of the applications or the underlying infrastructure are hard to even assess. This course addresses this growing interest and deals with specific issues of computer and network survivability. Survivability goes beyond computer and network security or fault-tolerance. The range of threats to survivability that must be considered is enormous, including hardware malfunctions, software flaws, environmental hazards, and malicious and accidental human acts.

Course description: This course discusses issues of Survivability, Attributes of System Survivability, Trustworthiness, Dependability and Assurance, Threats to Survivability, Threats to Security, Threats to Reliability, Threats to Performance, Requirements and Their Interdependence, Systemic Inadequacies, Approaches for Overcoming Deficiencies, Evaluation Criteria, Attempts at Standardization, Architectures for Survivability, Implementing and Configuring for Survivability.

A wealth of literature has surfaced that deals with issues of system survivability. This class will be taught in several phases in which material will be presented by the instructor and literature will be reviewed by individual or groups of students. The results will be individual and group presentations as well as discussions of contemporary issues. The exact list of topics and class format is not final and a work in progress.

• Contact information:
  • Axel Krings (PhD), JEB B30,
  • Phone: 208-885-4078, fax: 208-885-9052.
  • Office Hours: (see here)
  • MWF 2:30-3:20 room BEL 116 (I am trying to find a more suitable classroom).
• Fall 2008 Term Class Handouts:
  • The handouts are ordered by sequence numbers and the material covered in the lectures are indicated next to the date.
  • If there are any problems with accessing the handouts, please let me know (email, phone, smoke signs, drums, ...)!
  • Corrections: some slides may contain formatting errors, typos etc. which have been addressed in class, but have not been reflected in the notes posted here.
  • Course syllabus: to be discussed in class.
  • Lecture Notes:
    Note that we will stretch out the material of the first few classes in order to address background issues raised during the presentation of the papers. This will help especially students that have not taken computer security and fault-tolerant systems. However, please do not confuse handwaving with in-depth knowledge!
    • Lecture 1 (08/25/08): [1/1-1/05] Sequence 1, (pdf), : Introduction, [Reading assignment 1)]
    • Lecture 2 (08/27/08): [1/6-2/05] Sequence 2, (pdf), : Discussion Ellison paper
    • Lecture 3 (08/29/08): [2/06-2/16] Sequence 3, (pdf), : continuation of discussion from previous class, [Reading assignment 2)] [Start Reading assignment 3)]
    • Lecture 4 (09/03/08): [2/17-3/06] ROOM CHANGE to JEB 321 (the CAD lab), Sequence 4, (pdf), : Survivability Life Cycle
    • Lecture 5 (09/05/08): [3/07-3/21] Sequence 5, (pdf), : A Case Study in Survivable Network System Analysis
    • Lecture 6 (09/08/08): no class: reading assignment
    • Lecture 7 (09/08/08): no class: reading assignment
    • Lecture 8 (09/12/08): [4/01-5/02] Sequence 6, (pdf), : A Case Study in Survivable Network System Analysis (cont.). Discussion of upcoming project.
    • Lecture 9 (09/15/08): [5/03-5/29] Continuation of discussion of project. CMU SNA study cont. . [Reading assignment 4]
    • Lecture 10 (09/17/08): [6/01-6/15] SNA discussion. [Reading Assignment 5]
    • Lecture 11 (09/19/08): [6/16-8/01] Sequence 8, (pdf), : SNA discussion
    • Lecture 12 (09/22/08): [sequence 8] SNA discussion, Assignment discussion
    • Lecture 13 (09/24/08): [9/01- 9/05] Sequence 9, (pdf), : Dependability discussion (from reading assignment 5)
    • Lecture 14 (09/26/08): [9/06- 9/21] Assignment 2 is posted. Continuation of dependability discussion (from reading assignment 5)
    • Lecture 15 (09/29/08): [11/01-11/10] Sequence 11, (pdf), : Background on agreement algorithms and fault models, [Reading assignment 6]
    • Lecture 16 (10/01/08): [11/11-11/21] Agreement, Oral Messages cont.
    • Lecture 17 (10/03/08): [11/01-11/10] Sequence 12, (pdf), : Signed messages, hybrid fault models ]
    • Lecture 18 (10/06/08): [12/01-12/12] Sequence 13, (pdf), : Dealing with Patterns
    • Lecture 19 (10/08/08): [12/13-13/15] Sequence 14, (pdf), : Modeling background information, Markov chain basics. You might want to check out the Markov chain notes in the CS449 website
    • Lecture 20 (10/10/08): [14/01-15/08] Sequence 15, (pdf), : Markov Analysis of Software Specifications, [Reading assignment 7]
    • Lecture 21 (10/13/08): [15/09-15/xx] Sequence 18, (pdf), : Systems under Attack, top-down and bottom-up approach to reactionary control, [Reading assignment 8]
    • Exam I (10/15/08): covers material up to and including Sequence 15.
    • Lecture 22 (10/17/08): [18/01-18/13] Attach profiling, attack signatures 548 Pre-proposals are due
    • Lecture 23 (10/20/08): [18/14-18/32] Sequence 19, (pdf), : Security Vulnerabilities
    • Lecture 24 (10/22/08): [19/01-19/13] Discussion of exam, 500-level project progress, assignment 1, security vulnerabilities
    • Lecture 25 (10/24/08): [19/14-22/09] Sequence 22, (pdf), : Security vulnerabilities, [Reading assignment 9]
    • Lecture 26 (10/27/08): [23/01-23/16] Sequence 23, (pdf), : Scheduling Issues in Survivability Applications using Hybrid Fault Models [Reading Assignment 10]
    • Lecture 27 (10/29/08): [23/17-24/12] Sequence 24, (pdf), : Problem transformation: Borrowing from well-established fields, [Reading Assignment 11]
    • Lecture 28 (10/31/08): [24/13-24/31] Scheduling issues
    • Lecture 29 (11/03/08): [24/32-24/50] 500-level project progress, Agent Survivability: Secret sharing transformation.
    • Lecture 30 (11/05/08): [26/01-26/15] Sequence 26, (pdf), : 500-level project progress, Agent-based Systems, Survivable Storage: Part I: RAID [Reading Assignment 12]
    • Lecture 31 (11/07/08): [26/16-26/29] Sequence 27, (pdf), : Survivable Storage Part II: [Reading Assignment 13]
    • Lecture 32 (11/10/08): [26/30-28/08] Sequence 28, (pdf), : Survivable Storage Part II: cont.
    • Lecture 33 (11/12/08): [28/08-28/15] continuation of storage discussion
    • Lecture 34 (11/14/08): [28/16-28/25] Sequence 29, (pdf), : A discussion on Ports
    • Lecture 35 (11/17/08): [28/26-29/30] Sequence 30, (pdf), : Ports etc.
    • Lecture 36 (11/19/08): [29/31-30/10] Ports cont..
    • Lecture 37 (11/21/08): [30/11-30/22] Discussion on 500-level project, Attack scenarios
    • Thanksgiving Break
    • Lecture 38 (12/01/08): [31/01-31/24] Sequence 31, (pdf), : Probability Risk Assessment, fault tree analysis, reliability of systems.
    • Exam II (12/03/08):This is an open book, open notes, (but no computers) exam
    • Lecture 39 (12/05/08): [31/25-32/08] Sequence 32 (pdf), : Sequence 33 (pdf), : Risk Assessment and Management, NIST Special Publication 800-30
    • Lecture 40 (12/08/08): [35/01-35/09] Sequence 34, (pdf), : more on risk.
    • Lecture 41 (12/10/08): [32/09-34/04] Sequence 35, (pdf), : Survivability of telecommunication system (Liu & Trivedi).
    • Lecture 42 (12/12/08): [34/05-34/19] [36/01-36/xx] Sequence 36, (pdf), : Case Study: Firewall
    • Final exam 12/17/08 at 3:00 pm.
  • Reading Assignments (so far):
    • 1) (CMU-report-97tr013.pdf)
    • 2) (CMU-report-00tr013.pdf)
    Note that this includes the previous report. Our focus will be on the material starting with chapter 3.
    • 3) (CMU-report-98tr014.pdf)
    Note, this is an application of the SNA described in the previous reading assignment.
    • 4) Textbook sections 5.1 through 5.3.
    • 5) (Fundamental Concepts of Dependability)
    • 6) (The Byzantine Generals Problem )
    by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak and Marshall Pease, ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Volume 4, Issue 3, (July 1982). This paper is mainly for students that have not take CS449/549 and will bring them up to speed on topics related to fault models. We will discuss their limitations in hostile environments later.
    • 7) [Whi93] Whittaker James A., and J.H. Poore, Markov Analysis of Software Specifications, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Vol.2, No.1, January 1993, pp. 93-106. (get from web)
    • 8) A Two-Layer Approach to Survivability of Networked Computing Systems (pdf)
    • 9) Computer Security in Aviation: Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Risks (thml)
    • 10) Scheduling Issues in Survivability Applications using Hybrid Fault Models (pdf)
    • 11) Textbook chapter 5.6: Borrowing from well-established fields
    • 12) Patterson, D.A., et. al., A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), ACM SIGMOD Records, International Conference on Management of Data, Vol.~17, No.~3, pp.~109-116, June~1988
    • 13) Survivable Storage, CMU Tech. Report CMU-CS-01-120.
    • 14) Read the risk cited in sequence 34
    • 15) Read: "A General Framework for Network Survivability Quantification", by Y. Liu and Kishor Trivedi.
    • 16) Take a look at the paper "Applying the Eight-Stage Risk Assessment Methodology to Firewalls", discussed in Sequence 36.
  • Assignments (so far):
    • Early start for assignment 1 (early start)
    • Assignment 1 (pdf) tba (slightly open end)
    • Assignment 2 (pdf) due 10/03/2008
    • 548 Project (pdf)
  • Pointers to Research:
    • need to be cleaned up :-)
    • DDoS issues
      • Consensus Roadmap of defeating DDoS attacks.
      • CERT: TCP SYN Flooding and IP Spoofing Attacks,
      • Strategies to Protect Against TCP SYN DoS Attacks .
      • DoS using trin00 & Tribe Flood Network programs
    • Peter Neumann
      • Practical Architectures for Survivable Systems and Networks (Neumann Report) (don't print this out, it is very large)
      • final class notes (ps), earlier class notes (html),
      • Inside Risks,
      • Computer-Related Risks: New Material,
      • The Risks Digest,
      • Illustrative Risks,
    • Survivability Groups/Projects
      • CMU SEI Survivability
      • T1A1.2 Working Group
      • Survivable Computing (FSU)
    • Critical Infrastructure Protection
      • President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection,
      • Virginia slides (John Knight et.al.), Lake Tahoe meeting 1997
    • Groups/Reporting/Advisories:
      • CERT Coordination Center
      • National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC)
      • CERT/CC Advisories 1988-2000
      • SANS
      • Security Vulnerabilities
      • Virginia
      • SecurePoint Bug Traq
      • SecurityFocus
      • Renater-CERT
    • Interesting Links
      • secinf.net.
      • Information Assurance & Survivability.
      • DARPA ITO
      • (DISCEX) DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (2001).
      • MITRE Information Assurance.
      • Some IDS Projects/Sources: Michael Sobirey's IDS page, COAST Purdue, COAST IDS, EMERALD, Computer Immune Systems, S.J. Stolfo, misc papers,
      • LINKS - Resources for Survivable Systems.
      • Firewalls:  Purdue
      • PASIS Survivable Storage
    • (My) General Pointers to Research Areas,

  Back to my homepage