04 - Security & Privacy
Security Foundations
Relevant DSS-P Skills
- 4. Security > 4.1 Security Management > Security System Construction and Operation
- 4. Security > 4.1 Security Management > Security Management
- Information security - The practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks
- Vulnerability - A weakness which can be exploited by a threat actor
- Threat - A potential negative action or event facilitated by a vulnerability
- Shared Responsibility Model - A security and compliance framework that outlines the responsibilities of cloud service providers (CSPs) and customers for securing every aspect of the cloud environment
Common Threats & Attack Vectors
- Malware - Any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network
- Ransomware - A type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid
- Social engineering - The psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information
- Phishing - A type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information
- Business Email Compromise (BEC) - A type of phishing attack in which an attacker impersonates a high-level executive and attempts to trick an employee or customer into transferring money or sensitive data
- Infostealer - A type of Trojan horse designed to gather information from a system
- Mirai (malware) - A malware that turns networked devices running Linux into remotely controlled bots that can be used as part of a botnet in large-scale network attacks
- Think before you Click(Fix) - A social engineering technique that tricks users into running malicious commands on their devices by taking advantage of their target's tendency to solve minor technical issues
Modern Security Architectures
- Zero trust security model - An approach to the design and implementation of IT systems where trust is never granted implicitly and verification is required for everyone
- Mutual authentication - A process in which both parties in a communications link authenticate each other
Security Training & Competitions
- Capture the flag (cybersecurity) - A hacking contest where participants use specialized knowledge and techniques to find hidden "Flags" (answers) and compete for the highest total score
- Platforms
- CTFd - The easiest Capture The Flag platform to host your own cyber security workshop, providing a rock solid base that is easily customizable with themes and plugins
Cryptography & Data Protection
Relevant DSS-P Skills
- 4. Security > 4.2 Security Technology > Secure Design, Development, and Construction
Core Cryptography
Hashing
- Hash Function
- MD5 - A cryptographically broken but still widely used hash function producing a 128-bit hash value
- SHA-2 (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512) - A set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the United States National Security Agency (NSA)
- Bcrypt - A password-hashing function based on the Blowfish cipher
- Scrypt - A password-based key derivation function created by Colin Percival
Symmetric-key Cryptography
- Symmetric-key algorithm - Algorithms for cryptography that use the same cryptographic keys for both the encryption of plaintext and the decryption of ciphertext
- Block Cipher
- AES - A specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001
- Salsa20 ChaCha - A variant of Salsa20 that increases the diffusion per round while achieving the same or slightly better performance
- MAC (Message Authentication Code)
- HMAC - A specific type of message authentication code (MAC) involving a cryptographic hash function and a secret cryptographic key
- Modes of Operation
- CBC (Cipher block chaining) - A mode of operation for a block cipher where a block of plaintext is XORed with the previous ciphertext block before being encrypted
- GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) - A mode of operation for symmetric-key cryptographic block ciphers which is widely adopted for its performance
- CCM - A mode of operation for cryptographic block ciphers designed to provide both authentication and confidentiality
Public-key Cryptography
- Digital signature - A mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents
- Public-key cryptography - A cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys
- Key Agreement
- Diffie-Hellman key exchange - A method of securely exchanging cryptographic keys over a public channel
- Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman - A key agreement protocol that allows two parties to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel
- Encryption Schemes
- RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5 - An older Encryption/decryption Scheme (ES) was first standardized in version 1.5 of PKCS #1 and is known to be vulnerable
- RSAES-OAEP - A padding scheme that enhances RSA encryption by adding randomness and preventing partial decryption, it was standardized in PKCS#1 v2 and RFC 2437
- Signature Schemes
- RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 - A Signature Scheme with Appendix (SSA) was first standardized in version 1.5 of PKCS #1 and is considered unforgeable according to Jager et al. (2018)
- DSA - A public-key cryptosystem and Federal Information Processing Standard for digital signatures, it is based on the mathematical concept of modular exponentiation and the discrete logarithm problem
- ECDSA - A variant of the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) that utilizes elliptic-curve cryptography
- Key formats
- PKCS #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications - A standard that provides the basic definitions of and recommendations for implementing the RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography
- PKCS #12: Personal Information Exchange Syntax - A file format for storing multiple cryptographic objects in a single file
- Cryptographic Standards & Formats
- Cryptographic Message Syntax - The IETF's standard for cryptographically protected messages, used by cryptographic schemes and protocols to digitally sign, digest, authenticate, or encrypt any form of digital data