Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
The Secure Information Flow Analyser (SIFA) is an open-source tool for analysing data flow through systems that can be represented as graphs. It was originally intended for analysing electronic circuit diagrams. However, the tool is general enough that it could also be used for analysing communications network layouts, or other such complex systems. The Design of Secure and Energy-Efficient Embedded Systems for Future Internet Applications project (SecFutur) is a large European project which is designing and developing components for security-critical networking applications.
Hypothesis/Aims This project will show how the SIFA tool can be used to analyse the dataflow characteristics of one of the security-critical network designs emerging from the SecFutur project. To do so, it will be necessary to devise suitably abstract models of not only the network's physical topology, but also its protocols and services.
Approach The project will focus on a specific case study currently being developed as part of the SecFutur project, a 'trusted metering' system for remote monitoring of domestic electricity consumption. This is an ideal example because the physical topology, software protocols and security objectives of the system are all well documented. (An actual prototype of the system is currently under development.)
The various components of the system will be modelled in the SIFA tool, using its built-in editor, and then analysed, using SIFA's data tracing functions, to see how security-critical data may flow through the network and under what circumstances it can move from a 'high-security data source', such as a store of classified sensor readings, to a 'low-security data sink', such as a malicious observer.
References
- The Secure Information Flow Analyser: http://sifa.sourceforge.net/
- The SecFutur project: http://www.secfutur.eu/
- M. Broxvall. SecFutur Use Case Description: Metering Devices. Draft, Version 1.1, September 2010.
- Study level
- Honours
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Contact
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Please contact the supervisor.
Professor Colin Fidge
