The Biden Executive Order

There is nothing like long lines at the gas pumps to get the attention of government.  This is an initiative that is long overdue.  There is a great deal to do.  Cyber is the infrastructure that we use to operate all the others, particularly to include energy and finance, and it is all too fragile and porous for the reliance that we have upon it.  

It is good to see that "zero trust" made the list.  The concept goes back to the mainframe and many of us have been actively promoting it for the internet for years.  It is important to use it both horizontally, that is system to system and service to service, and vertically, through the layers of the application.  

Zero Trust requires strong authentication (at least two kinds of evidence, at least one of which is resistant to replay) both user to system and process to process.  One cannot trust a process whose identity is not reliable.  If strong authentication is not the single most effective and efficient measure at our disposal, it is certainly among the top three.  It deserves its own mention.  

Zero trust also implies resistance to lateral compromise within the enterprise.  It should not be possible to compromise an entire enterprise simply by getting one user to click on a bait message in an e-mail or on a web-site.  In addition to resistance to fraudulent credential replay, we need structured networks.  I would like to see end-to-end application-layer encryption but, at least in the short run, I would settle for network segmentation and layering.  

I am glad that it addresses software quality.  However, the practice here is so shoddy and the contributors so many that simply saying we will address it through government purchasing power will not be enough.  Nor can we rely on training alone.  We need systems and development processes that make it much easier to do it right than to do it wrong.  

I would like to have seen the order address accountability and transparency for privileged users.  Edward Snowden should not have been able to run rampant through a network that one would have expected to be "secure."  It is ironic that the place that we are most likely to see shared credentials is among privileged users.  Wherever there are two or more privileged users per shift, we need privileged access policy and management systems.  

We cannot continue to allow just any amateur to connect anything they like to the public networks.  While it may require legislation, we must require that only mechanisms built by professionals to infrastructure standards (e.g., built for the ages, fails in an orderly and safe manner, resistant to easily anticipated misuse and abuse) can attach directly to the public networks.  As we need structure networks within the enterprise, we need structure within the Internet.  

We also need to have accountability for suppliers who distribute (malicious) code that they did not write.  This too may require legislation but a class action suit against SolarWinds would be a start.  

The Biden Executive Order is a start but only a start.  There is much to do.  Let us get on with it.

The Internet as Infrastructure

Today, when one connects an application, system, or network to the public networks, one is adding to the "system of public works," that is to "infrastructure," of the nation and the world. 

The standards for building infrastructure, such as bridges, tunnels, and dams, are different from those for other artifacts.  Infrastructure must not fall of its own weight, it should not fail in normal use or under normal load, and must resist "easily anticipated abuse and misuse."  A suspension bridge must not fall because a driver falls asleep and an eighteen wheeler goes over the side.

Notice that the abuse and misuse that can be easily anticipated today, is much worse than when we began the Internet.  Were it not so, we might have done many things differently.

We call the resultant necessary property of infrastructure resiliency, rather than security, but the properties are related.

For any artifact, there are limits to the complexity, scale, load, and simultaneous component failures that the mechanism can be expected to survive. How many simultaneous sleepy drivers and plunging eighteen wheelers must a bridge be designed to survive.

When those limits are reached, what we want to happen is that the mechanism fail in such a way that damage is limited and the mechanism can be restored to operation as quickly as possible.

The three Great Northeastern Blackouts, of which August 14, 2003 was the latest, are examples. It is interesting that engineers see these blackouts as successes while the public and their surrogates, journalists and politicians, see them as failures.

All three were caused by multiple simultaneous and cascading component failures under conditions of heavy load. In all three cases the system failed in such a way that it was restored to a ninety percent service level in a day. While all three were spectacular and exciting, the damage was not nearly so severe as one might expect from a major ice storm.

This is the way that we would like the public networks to fail. In fact, so far, that is what we have seen. We have had massive local failures of the PSTN where it took days to weeks to restore to a ninety percent service level. Most of these were fire related and local. We have had one that was national and caused by a software change. We recovered from this one in hours.

To date, we have had a number of local failures of the Internet, all man-made (mostly caused by the infamous "cable-seeking backhoes or boat anchors"); most were accidental. We recovered from all of these in days. SQL/Slammer was man-made, malicious, and software related; it caused a noticeable drop in service for hours. However, there was not really a discontinuity of service.

It should be noted that SQL/Slammer was a homogenous attack.  That is, every instance of it looked the same.  This made it relatively easy to construct and deploy filters that would resist its flow while not interfering with normal traffic.  However, it is fairly easy to visualize a heterogeneous attack that might overwhelm this remedy.

So, there is wide-spread concern that there might be a malicious software-based attack that would bring down the entire Internet. To some degree this is angst, an unfocused apprehension rooted in intuition or ignorance.  However, it is shared by many who are knowledgeable.  Their concern is rooted in the (often unidentified and un-enumerated) facts that:

* the Internet evolved; it was not designed and deployed
* switching in the network is software-based,
* operation of the components is homogenous
* operation of network management controls is in-band
* users often have default access to management controls
* the topology is both open and flat
* paths in the network are ad hoc and adaptive
* connection policy is permissive,
* most of the nodes in the network are un-trusted and a large number are under malicious control.
* access is open and cheap
* identity of both components and users is unreliable
* ownership and management is decentralized
* other

If the impact of these things on the resiliency of the Internet were as obvious prospectively as it is retrospectively, we might have done things differently.  On the other hand, we might not have.  A little discussion is in order.

Unlike the PSTN, the Internet is packet, rather than circuit, switched.  The intent of this was to make the network more resilient in the face of node or link failures.  

The routers and switches may be software running on von Neumann architecture general-purpose computers.  This may make the network more resistant to component failure while making the components more vulnerable to malicious attack.  

We have become accustomed to the idea that software processes are vulnerable to interference or contamination by their data, i.e., the software in the switch can be contaminated by its traffic.  This exposes us to attacks intended to exploit, interfere with, or take control of switches and routers. 

This may be aggravated by the fact that so many routers and switches look the same.  While there are hundreds of products, most of them present controls that are operated via the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).  An attack that can take control of one might be able to take control of many.   

Even most non-switch nodes in the network look the same, that is, like Windows or Unix (rather than, for example, MVS or OS/400.)   These two operating systems are open, historically broken, and have a commitment to backward compatibility that makes them difficult to fix.  Historically they have shipped with unsafe defaults and have been corrupted within minutes of being connected to the Internet.  The result has been that there are millions of corrupt nodes in the Internet that are under the control of malicious actors.

Operation of the routers and switches (and other network nodes) is via the network itself; they can be operated from almost any node in the network.  Many are hidden, if at all, only by a password, often weak or even default.  Thus, it might be possible to coordinate simultaneous mis-operation of many nodes at the same time. 

The Internet is open as to user, attachment, protocol, and application.  The cost of a connection to the Internet is a function of the bandwidth or load but the cost of a relatively fast persistent connection is in the tens of dollars per month, about the same as a dial connection a decade ago.  

While one must demonstrate the ability to pay, usually with a credit card, the credit card may be stolen, and, depending on the provider, the name in which the connection is registered may not have to be the same as that on the credit card.  In short, almost anyone can add a node to the Internet with minimal checks on their identity or bona fides.  There will be bad actors. 

The only thing that is required to add a new protocol or application to the Internet is that at least two nodes agree on it and that it can be composed from IP packets.  Use of load-intensive protocols and applications for streaming audio and video were added to other protocols and applications with no changes to the underlying infrastructure.  We have seen DoS attacks that relied upon minor changes to protocols and their use.

At least in theory, the topology of Internet is "flat," as opposed to structured or hierarchical.  That is, at least in theory and with few exceptions, any node in the Internet can send a packet to any other node in the Internet.  The time and cost to send a packet between any two nodes chosen at random is roughly the same as for any other pair of nodes.  

Said another way, both the time and cost to send a packet are independent of distance.  One implication of this is that attacks are cheap, can originate anywhere, and can attack anything attached. 

Paths in the Internet are determined late, possibly on a packet by packet basis, and adapt to changes in load or control settings.  The intent is that there be so many potential paths between A and B that at least one will always be available and that it will be discovered and used.  While the intent is to make the network resistant to node and link failures, an unintended consequence is that it is difficult to resist the flow of attack traffic. 

The original policies of the Internet were promiscuous (as opposed to permissive or restrictive); not only was any packet and flow permitted but there were no controls in place to resist them.  This was essential to the its triumph over competitors like SNA and may have been necessary to its success.  

While controls have been added as the scale has grown, the policy is still permissive, rather than restrictive, i.e., everything is allowed that is not explicitly forbidden.  

Said another way, all traffic is presumed to be benign until shown otherwise.  Attack traffic can flow freely until identified and restricted.

Finally, while most of the nodes in the Internet are un-trusted, and we know that many are corrupted and under hostile control, all are given the benefit of the doubt.  To date there has been little effort to identify and eliminate those that have been corrupted.  Therefore there remains a possibility that these corrupt systems can be marshaled in such a way as to deny the use of network to all, or some targeted group, of users. 

The Internet is robust, not fragile.  It is resistant to both natural and accidental artificial events.  However, To the extent that the above things are, and remain, true, the Internet, and indirectly, the nations, economies, institutions and individuals that rely upon, it are vulnerable to abuse and misuse; concern is justified, if not proportionate.  

While these characteristics are pervasive and resistant to change, while they were often chosen for good reason, they are not fixed or required and can be changed.  Understanding them and how they  might be changed is key to making the Internet as resistant to abuse and misuse as it is to component failure or destruction. 

It suggests that the network must become both less open, not to say, closed, and more structured. The management controls must be protected and taken out of band.  The policy must become much more restrictive.  We must identify our users and customers and hold them accountable for their traffic.

To bring the Internet to infrastructure standards, we must overcome not only inertia but also culture.  Each of us must exercise our influence on our  employers, clients, and vendors to move the Internet to the same standards that we expect of skyscrapers, bridges, tunnels, and dams.  Since there is no one else to do it, we are called professionals and are paid the big bucks. 

Internet Vulnerability

On March 24, 2017 Gregory Michaelidis wrote in Slate on "Why America’s Current Approach to Cybersecurity Is So Dangerous."

He cited an article by Bruce Schneier.

In response, I observed to a number of colleagues, proteges, and students that "One takeaway from this article and the Schneier article that it points to is that we need to reduce our attack surface.  Dramatically.  Perhaps ninety percent.  Think least privilege access at all layers to include application white-listing, safe dcfaults, end-to-end application layer encryption, and strong authentication."

One colleague responded "I think one reason the cyber attack surface is so large is that the global intel agencies hoard vulnerabilities and exploits..."  Since secret "vulnerabilities and exploits" account for so little of our attack surface, I fear that he missed my point.

While it is true that intelligence agencies enjoy the benefits of our vulnerable systems and are little motivated to reduce the attack surface, the "hoarded vulnerabilities and exploits" are not the attack surface and the intel agencies are not the cause.  

The cause is the IT culture. There is a broad market preference for open networks, systems, and applications. TCP/IP drove the more secure SNA/SDLC from the field. The market prefers Windows and Linux to OS X, Android to iOS, IBM 360 to System 38, MVS to FS, MS-DOS to OS/2, Z Systems to iSeries, Flash to HTML5, von Neumann architecture [Wintel systems] to almost anything else.  

One can get a degree in Computer Science, even in Cyber Security, without ever even hearing about a more secure alternative architecture to von Neumann's [e.g. IBM iSeries. Closed, finite state architecture (operations can take the system only from one valid state to another), limited set of strongly-typed (e.g., data can not be executed, programs cannot be modified) objects, single level store, symbolic only addressing, etc.)]

We prefer to try and stop leakage at the end user device or the perimeter rather than administer access control at the database or file system. We persist in using replayable passwords in preference to strong authentication, even though they are implicated in almost every breach. We terminate encryption on the OS, or even the perimeter, rather than the application. We deploy user programmable systems where application only systems would do.  We enable escape mechanisms and run scripts and macros by default.

We have too many overly privileged users with almost no multi-party controls. We discourage shared UIDs and passwords for end users but default to them for the most privileged users, where we most need accountability. We store our most sensitive information in the clear, as file system objects, on the desktop, rather than encryptied, in document management systems, on servers. We keep our most sensitive data and mission critical apps on the same systems where we run our most vulnerable applications, browsing and e-mail. We talk about defense in depth but operate our enterprise networks flat, any to any connectivity and trust, not structured, not architected. It takes us weeks to months just to detect breaches and more time to fix them.  

I can go on and I am sure you can add examples of your own. Not only is the intelligence community not responsible for this practice, they are guilty of it themselves. It was this practice, not secret vulnerabilities, that was exploited by Snowden. It is this culture, not "hoarded vulnerabilities and exploits," that is implicated in the breaches of the past few years. It defies reason that one person acting alone could collect the data that Snowden did without being detected.  

Nation states do what they do; their targets of choice will yield to their overwhelming force. However, we need not make it so easy. We might not be able to resist dragons but we are yielding to bears and brigands. I admit that the culture is defensive and resistant to change but it will not be changed by blaming the other guy. "We have seen the enemy and he is us."