Security Models: Part 2 - State Machine Model
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Time
15 hours 43 minutes
Difficulty
Advanced
CEU/CPE
16
Video Transcription
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>> Our first of the Security Models,
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I don't know that you would specifically see
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the state machine model on the test
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>> which is interesting for me
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>> because this has to be the basis
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>> for every other model we're going to look at.
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>> Hey, it's called the state machine model,
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and this should make sense
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why it has to be the basis for all other systems.
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Now at first, this sounds ridiculously easy
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>> because what I'm going to tell you is,
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>> if a system starts securely,
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if a system functions securely,
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and if it shuts down securely,
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then what do you know about that system?
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It's a secure system.
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That sounds very basic,
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but what's so important about this is
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>> if any one of those requirements is not true,
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>> then your system is not secure.
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For instance, it doesn't matter;
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>> how secure your function,
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>> how secure your shutdown,
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if I can force an error while your system starts up.
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As a matter of fact,
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startup is where your system is the most vulnerable
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because most of your defensive mechanisms
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haven't been loaded yet.
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I'll tell you this is one of the reasons that
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rootkits are able to get into a system undetected
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>> because many rootkits
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>> load themselves at the beginning of
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the operating system load before
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their security elements are loaded
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and it sneaks in there undetected.
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The operating system kernel,
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very early loads in a rootkit gets in there
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>> and we'll talk about the operating system kernel.
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>> But basically, it's the heart and soul of the OS.
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A lot of rootkits are,
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or you may see an attack where rootkit is saved with
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the extension of VXD
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and a VXD is a virtual device driver,
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but what's significant is it loads very early on.
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Again, rootkits often compromise the system at startup.
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Now, once your system is compromise,
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there's no turning back.
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You can have all the security software
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in the world for function,
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and it can be protected,
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shut down, but still not secure.
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Now, if a system's running and gets compromised,
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we've seen instances of malware
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>> and covert channels and all these different things,
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>> then it's not secure,
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and then also in shutdown,
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if a system is compromised,
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in shutdown, it's not secure.
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Now, the idea is,
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if I can force the system to fail in such a way
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>> that resources or sessions
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>> or elements are hanging or left open,
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>> then that's a point for compromise.
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A matter of fact, if you've ever seen
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the blue screen of death with a Windows system,
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if you think about that blue screen,
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what can you do
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>> when your system blue screens or locks up?
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>> You can't run applications,
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you can't export, it can't import.
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You can't really do much of anything
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>> and that's a secure shut down.
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>> That shut down, see, it's an undocumented feature.
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It's not a problem, it's a feature.
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But that shut down, terminates all processes,
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so nothing's left hanging
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that an attacker can compromise.
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These are just some ways that our systems
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follow the state machine model,
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which could also be called the secure state model.
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But at any rate,
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some systems do so better than others,
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but all system shouldn't attempt security at start,
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function and shut down,
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and the degree to which they're successful
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>> will determine the security of the system.
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>> That just wraps up a little discussion
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on the state machine model.
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The reason I said this is the basic foundation
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>> for all the other models.
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>> We can add on security,
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but the rest of the security models are going to focus
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>> on the system while it's running, while its operating.
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>> The state machine model comes in and reminds us,
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>> hey, you got a security at the beginning,
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>> as well as function,
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as well as shut down,
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you can't just focus
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while the operating system is running,
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so the state machine model, very important model.
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It's at the base of all the other security models.
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