Example: bachelor of science

Chapter Security Architecture 12 Vulnerabilities, Threats ...

Security Architecture Vulnerabilities, Threats , and CountermeasuresTHE CISSP EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS Chapter INCLUDE:6. Security Architecture and DesignD. Understand the vulnerabilities of Security System ( , covert channels, state attacks, emanations) Technology and process integration ( , single point of failure, service oriented Architecture )E. Understand software and system vulnerabilities and Web-based ( , XML, SAML, OWASP) Client-based ( , applets) Server-based ( , data flow control) Distributed systems ( , cloud computing, grid computing, peer to peer)F. Understand countermeasure principles ( , defense in depth) Chapter 47729/05/12 7:59 AM29/05/12 7:59 AMIn previous chapters of this book, we ve covered basic secu-rity principles and the protective mechanisms put in place to prevent violation of them. We ve also examined some of the specifi c types of attacks used by malicious individuals seeking to circumvent those protec-tive mechanisms.

Security Architecture Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Countermeasures THE CISSP EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER INCLUDE: 6. Security Architecture and Design

Tags:

  Threats, Countermeasures, And countermeasures

Information

Domain:

Source:

Link to this page:

Please notify us if you found a problem with this document:

Other abuse

Transcription of Chapter Security Architecture 12 Vulnerabilities, Threats ...

1 Security Architecture Vulnerabilities, Threats , and CountermeasuresTHE CISSP EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS Chapter INCLUDE:6. Security Architecture and DesignD. Understand the vulnerabilities of Security System ( , covert channels, state attacks, emanations) Technology and process integration ( , single point of failure, service oriented Architecture )E. Understand software and system vulnerabilities and Web-based ( , XML, SAML, OWASP) Client-based ( , applets) Server-based ( , data flow control) Distributed systems ( , cloud computing, grid computing, peer to peer)F. Understand countermeasure principles ( , defense in depth) Chapter 47729/05/12 7:59 AM29/05/12 7:59 AMIn previous chapters of this book, we ve covered basic secu-rity principles and the protective mechanisms put in place to prevent violation of them. We ve also examined some of the specifi c types of attacks used by malicious individuals seeking to circumvent those protec-tive mechanisms.

2 Until this point, when discussing preventative measures, we have focused on policy measures and the software that runs on a system. However, Security professionals must also pay careful attention to the system itself and ensure that their higher-level protec-tive controls are not built upon a shaky foundation. After all, the most secure fi rewall con-fi guration in the world won t do a bit of good if the computer it runs on has a fundamental Security fl aw that allows malicious individuals to simply bypass the fi rewall this Chapter , we ll cover those underlying Security concerns by conducting a brief survey of a fi eld known as computer Architecture : the physical design of computers from various components. We ll examine each of the major physical components of a comput-ing system hardware and fi rmware from a Security perspective. Obviously, the detailed analysis of a system s hardware components is not always a luxury available to you because of resource and time constraints.

3 However, all Security professionals should have at least a basic understanding of these concepts in case they encounter a Security incident that reaches down to the system design Security Architecture and Design domain addresses a wide range of concerns and issues, including secure design elements, Security Architecture , vulnerabilities, Threats , and associated countermeasures . Computer ArchitectureComputer Architecture is an engineering discipline concerned with the design and con-struction of computing systems at a logical level. Many college-level computer engineering and computer science programs fi nd it diffi cult to cover all the basic principles of computer Architecture in a single semester, so this material is often divided into two one-semester courses for undergraduates. Computer Architecture courses delve into the design of central processing unit (CPU) components, memory devices, device communications, and simi-lar topics at the bit level, defi ning processing paths for individual logic devices that make simple 0 or 1 decisions.

4 Most Security professionals do not need that level of knowledge, which is well beyond the scope of this book and the CISSP exam. However, if you will be involved in the Security aspects of the design of computing systems at this level, you would be well advised to conduct a more thorough study of this fi 47829/05/12 7:59 AM29/05/12 7:59 AMComputer Architecture 479 This initial discussion of computer Architecture may seem at fi rst to be irrelevant to CISSP, but most of the Security architectures and design elements are based on a solid understanding and implementation of computer hardware. The more complex a system, the less assurance it provides. More com-plexity means more areas for vulnerabilities exist and more areas must be secured against Threats . More vulnerabilities and more Threats mean that the subsequent Security provided by the system is less computing professional is familiar with the concept of hardware.

5 As in the construc-tion industry, hardware is the physical stuff that makes up a computer. The term hard-ware encompasses any tangible part of a computer that you can actually reach out and touch, from the keyboard and monitor to its CPU(s), storage media, and memory chips. Take careful note that although the physical portion of a storage device (such as a hard disk or DIMM) may be considered hardware, the contents of those devices the collections of 0s and 1s that make up the software and data stored within them may not. After all, you can t reach inside the computer and pull out a handful of bits and bytes!ProcessorThe central processing unit (CPU), generally called the processor, is the computer s nerve center it is the chip (or chips in a multiprocessor system) that governs all major operations and either directly performs or coordinates the complex symphony of calculations that allows a computer to perform its intended tasks.

6 Surprisingly, the CPU is actually capable of performing only a limited set of computational and logical operations, despite the com-plexity of the tasks it allows the computer to perform. It is the responsibility of the operat-ing system and compilers to translate high-level programming languages used to design software into simple assembly language instructions that a CPU understands. This limited range of functionality is intentional it allows a CPU to perform computational and logi-cal operations at blazing speeds, often measured in units known as MIPS (which stands for million instructions per second ).For an idea of the magnitude of the progress in computing technology over the years, view the Moore s Law article at Wikipedia at TypesAs computer processing power increased, users demanded more advanced features to enable these systems to process information at greater rates and to manage multiple func-tions simultaneously.

7 Computer engineers devised several methods to meet these 47929/05/12 7:59 AM29/05/12 7:59 AM480 Chapter 12 Security Architecture Vulnerabilities, ThreatsAt first blush, the terms multitasking, multiprocessing, multiprogramming, and multithreading may seem nearly identical. However, they describe very different ways of approaching the doing two things at once prob-lem. We strongly advise that you take the time to review the distinctions between these terms until you feel comfortable with In computing, multitasking means handling two or more tasks simultane-ously. In reality, most systems do not truly multitask; they rely upon the operating system to simulate multitasking by carefully structuring the sequence of commands sent to the CPU for execution. After all, when your processor is humming along at 57,000 MIPS, it s hard to tell that it s switching between tasks rather than actually working on two tasks at once.

8 However, you can assume that a multitasking system is able to juggle more than one task or process at any given In a multiprocessing environment, a multiprocessor computing system (that is, one with more than one CPU) harnesses the power of more than one processor to complete the execution of a single application. For example, a database server might run on a system that contains three processors. If the database application receives a number of sepa-rate queries simultaneously, it might send each query to a separate processor for types of multiprocessing are most common in modern systems with multiple CPUs. The scenario just described, where a single computer contains more than one processor controlled by a single operating system, is called symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). In SMP, processors share not only a common operating system but also a common data bus and memory resources.

9 In this type of arrangement, systems may use a large number of processors. Fortunately, this type of computing power is more than suffi cient to drive most computationally intensive operations, such as those that support the research of sci-entists and mathematicians, require more processing power than a single operating system can deliver. Such operations may be best served by a technology known as massively paral-lel processing (MPP). MPP systems house hundreds or even thousands of processors, each of which has its own operating system and memory/bus resources. When the software that coordinates the entire system s activities and schedules them for processing encounters a computationally intensive task, it assigns responsibility for the task to a single processor. This processor in turn breaks the task up into manageable parts and distributes them to other processors for execution.

10 Those processors return their results to the coordinating processor where they are assembled and returned to the requesting application. MPP sys-tems are extremely powerful (not to mention extremely expensive!) and are used in a great deal of computing or computational based types of multiprocessing provide unique advantages and are suitable for different types of situations. SMP systems are adept at processing simple operations at extremely high rates, whereas MPP systems are uniquely suited for processing very large, complex, computationally intensive tasks that lend themselves to decomposition and distribution into a number of subordinate 48029/05/12 7:59 AM29/05/12 7:59 AMComputer Architecture 481 Multiprogramming Multiprogramming is similar to multitasking. It involves the pseu-dosimultaneous execution of two tasks on a single processor coordinated by the operating system as a way to increase operational effi ciency.


Related search queries