The objective of this project is to provide an overview of how to create a secure network test environment using virtual machines with Red Hat CentOS 7. Using virtual machines to create a secure network test environment simplify the workflow of testing several servers including network segmentation, network path redundancy, and traffic control using a firewall. This study suggests a set of guidelines for building a secure network test environment that includes a Domain Name Server (DNS), Web Server, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server, and a firewall. The documentation provided in this project is primarily useful for IT students looking to recreate a similar environment of their own and to practice special skills needed within their field of study.

In the last 15 years, the adoption of enterprise level data networks had increased dramatically. This is mainly due to reasons, such as better use of IT resources, and even better coordination between departments and business units. These great demands have fuelled the push for better and faster connectivity to and from these networks, and even within the networks. We have moved from the slow 10Mbps to 1Gbps connectivity for end-point connections and moved from copper-based ISDN to fibre-linked connections for enterprise connections to the Internet. We now even include wireless network technologies in the mix, because of the greater convenience it offers. Such rapid progress is accompanied by ramifications, especially if not all aspects of networking technologies are improved linearly. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the only form of security had been along the line of authentication and authorisation. This is because of the widely used mainframes in that era. When the Internet and, ultimately, the wide-spread use of the Internet influxed in the 1980s, network security was born, and it was not until the late 1980s that saw the first Internet Worm that caused damage to information and systems on the Internet. Fast forward to today, and we see that although we have come a long way in terms of connectivity (connect to anywhere, and anytime, from anywhere else), the proposed use of network security and network security methods have not improved very much. Microsoft Windows XP recently switched from using their own authentication method, to the use of Kerberos, which was last revised 10 years ago. This thesis describes the many problems we face in the world of network security today, and proposes several new methods for future implementation, and to a certain extend, modification to current standards to encompass future developments. Discussion will include a proposed overview of what a secure network architecture should include, and this will lead into several aspects that can be improved on. All problems identified in this thesis have proposed solutions, except for one. The critical flaw found in the standard IEEE802.11 wireless technology was discovered during the course of this research. This flaw is explained and covered in great detail, and also, an explanation is given as to why this critical flaw is not fixable.

Network programming is one of the most important applications in Wireless Sensor Networks as It provides an efficient way to update program Images running on sensor nodes without physical access to them. Securing these updates, however, remains a challenging and important issue, given the open deployment environment of sensor nodes. Though several security schemes have been proposed to impose the authenticity and Integrity protection on network programming applications, they are either energy Inefficient as they tend to use digital signature or lacks the data confidentiality. In addition, due to the absence of secure memory management in the current sensor hardware, the attacker could inject malicious code into the program flash by exploiting buffer overflow In the memory despite the secure code dissemination. The contribution of this thesis Is to provide two software-based security protocols and one hardware-based remote attestation protocol for network programming application. Our first protocol deploys multiple one-way key chains for a multi-hop sensor network. The scheme Is shown to be lower In computational, power consumption and communication costs yet still able to secure multi??hop propagation of program images. Our second protocol utilizes an Iterative hash structure to the data packets in network programming application, ensuring the data confidentiality and authenticity. In addition, we Integrated confidentiality and DoS-attack-resistance in a multi??hop code dissemination protocol. Our final solution is a hardware-based remote attestation protocol for verification of running codes on sensor nodes. An additional piece of tamper-proof hardware, Trusted Platform Module (TPM), is imposed into the sensor nodes. It secures the sensitive information (e.g., the session key) from attackers and monitors any platform environment changes with the Internal registers. With these features of TPM, the code Injection attack could be detected and removed when the contaminated nodes are challenged in our remote attestation protocol. We implement the first two software-based protocols with Deluge as the reference network programming protocol in TinyOS, evaluate them with the extensive simulation using TOSSIM and validate the simulation results with experiments using Tmote. We implement the remote attestation protocol on Fleck, a sensor platform developed by CSIRO that Integrates an Atmel TPM chip.

Network programming is one of the most important applications in Wireless Sensor Networks as It provides an efficient way to update program Images running on sensor nodes without physical access to them. Securing these updates, however, remains a challenging and important issue, given the open deployment environment of sensor nodes. Though several security schemes have been proposed to impose the authenticity and Integrity protection on network programming applications, they are either energy Inefficient as they tend to use digital signature or lacks the data confidentiality. In addition, due to the absence of secure memory management in the current sensor hardware, the attacker could inject malicious code into the program flash by exploiting buffer overflow In the memory despite the secure code dissemination. The contribution of this thesis Is to provide two software-based security protocols and one hardware-based remote attestation protocol for network programming application. Our first protocol deploys multiple one-way key chains for a multi-hop sensor network. The scheme Is shown to be lower In computational, power consumption and communication costs yet still able to secure multi??hop propagation of program images. Our second protocol utilizes an Iterative hash structure to the data packets in network programming application, ensuring the data confidentiality and authenticity. In addition, we Integrated confidentiality and DoS-attack-resistance in a multi??hop code dissemination protocol. Our final solution is a hardware-based remote attestation protocol for verification of running codes on sensor nodes. An additional piece of tamper-proof hardware, Trusted Platform Module (TPM), is imposed into the sensor nodes. It secures the sensitive information (e.g., the session key) from attackers and monitors any platform environment changes with the Internal registers. With these features of TPM, the code Injection attack could be detected and removed when the contaminated nodes are challenged in our remote attestation protocol. We implement the first two software-based protocols with Deluge as the reference network programming protocol in TinyOS, evaluate them with the extensive simulation using TOSSIM and validate the simulation results with experiments using Tmote. We implement the remote attestation protocol on Fleck, a sensor platform developed by CSIRO that Integrates an Atmel TPM chip.

As technology is becoming a prevalent and ubiquitous part of society, increasing levels of cybercrime have drawn attention to the need for suitable frameworks for ensuring the security of systems by conducting penetration tests. There are several large and established frameworks for doing so, and they tend to focus on complicated large systems with multiple endpoints, devices, and network layers. The majority of new penetration testing research is also directed toward this scenario, by building automated tools that rely on new research in artificial intelligence.  While it is admirable to see research adapt to address the tendency toward complexity in networks and systems, it has created a research gap in the other direction. There is no specialized type of framework to accurately and efficiently test an important type of scenario where there is a wired network device in a secure environment that is subject to the risk of insider threat. The large established frameworks mostly advocate for testing using a black-box approach and automated tools. This approach is unsuitable for the scenario since it is likely to produce a level of false positives that is too high, and black box testing also contains steps that are slow and unnecessary.  This master thesis project has created a set of specialized penetration testing guidelines that are tailored to handle the scenario. By instead adopting a customized white-box approach and using mostly manual tools, the guidelines are built for accuracy, efficiency, and addressing the dangerous risk of insider threats. They were developed based on a systematic literature review of the scientific field. Further, they were produced using Design Science Research methodology, and evaluated by an expert panel of three professional penetration testers. They were also tested in a real-life scenario at a government agency focused on national security. The tests were able to find three vulnerabilities of the target device, where two of them would have been missed by a black-box approach. Compared to the established frameworks, the developed guidelines are estimated to be at least 20 percent faster.

We consider the problem of secure communications in a Gaussian two-way relay network where two nodes exchange confidential messages only via an untrusted relay. The relay is assumed to be honest but curious, i.e., an eavesdropper that conforms to the system rules and applies the intended relaying scheme. We analyze the achievable secrecy rates by applying network coding on the physical layer or the network layer and compare the results in terms of complexity, overhead, and efficiency. Further, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the respective approaches.

This work is focused on the security of small to medium-sized networks with central administration, especially on the creation of a methodology for secure network design.The design of a secure network for a start-up IT company, using open-source software, is described. Deployment of the designed secure network, with central management, is performed and the connectivity of network elements are tested. The model simulates network traffic situations and network attacks using penetration testing techniques. In terms of the severity of the impact on network security, intercepted attacks are evaluated and immediately reported to responsible persons. Finally, the results of the intercepted attacks are processed and further actions are recommended.

We consider the problem of secure communications in a Gaussian two-way relay network where two nodes exchange confidential messages only via an untrusted relay. The relay is assumed to be honest but curious, i.e., an eavesdropper that conforms to the system rules and applies the intended relaying scheme. We analyze the achievable secrecy rates by applying network coding on the physical layer or the network layer and compare the results in terms of complexity, overhead, and efficiency. Further, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the respective approaches.