Security lessons from 1200-baud modems

by Infrastructure Expert, More posts from Infrastructure Expert

Tue, 2007-01-30 21:55

Topic(s): Data Protection | Physical Security

When I accepted the position to come to INL I was confident that I understood the threat landscape for distributed/commodity computing systems. I recognized that I needed to understand some of the challenges facing the embedded & legacy systems that make up the control systems that we all rely on.

Within the first weeks of starting at INL I made a few phone calls to colleagues and associates around the world who have worked to secure critical infrastructure and embedded systems in the past. The lessons I learned from them were invaluable. One conversation in particular really helped me understand the situation that I was walking into and how I would have to think creatively to envision solutions to our current problems. I’ll share with you briefly the insight I gained.

Imagine that you are working on a team of engineers – designing an early commercial communications satellite. Every extra ounce of silicon & storage media introduces an exponential increase in the overall cost of getting the product in the sky. Thinking about the constraints on those individuals in the 1960’s – how would you go about securing the communications to/from that valuable asset?

In the case of the design team, they chose to off-load communications security to the base station and then keying the satellite to only accept commands from the base station. They also implemented a series of physical controls to augment their security strategy. Within a few months, the satellite had one of its first government customers and they wanted to understand the security mechanisms in place to protect the integrity of the satellite.

As most serious government customers do – they decided to contact some of their intelligence community friends to conduct an evaluation of the satellite’s systems. The satellite company agreed and the test began – with a surprising result. The base station operators saw some very unique activity on the front-end ground modems (1200-baud Bell 212’s) but never saw any un-authorized activity actually reaching the satellite. Why was it that the mercenary red team could not get past the front door?

It came down to a simple, yet elegant idea that one of the junior engineers had proposed – every communication to the satellite over ground modems would only be allowed after the correct COMBINATION of modems had been contacted in the correct sequence and with the correct credentials. Think of it as if you were playing a chord on a piano keyboard. The red team had been banging against each one of the modems – one by one – without any success. The modems were connected together with a logic controller and programmed with simple rule sets that could be configured at different intervals. The access procedure one week would be to initiate a connection with Modem A (without passing credentials yet) and then connect with Modem B and pass credentials. Once B had accepted the credentials the connection was terminated and then credentials were passed to Modem A and the control channel was established to the Satellite.

As I better understand the technical constraints that we face in securing our infrastructure – this bit of history continues to be an example that keeps me motivated and thinking of creative solutions to the threats that the infrastructure control systems face. With the support of the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security we are making progress in developing real-world solutions. The partnership that we are forming between government and private institutions will pay dividends in the near- and long-term future.

-Aaron Turner

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