Security in Distributed Systems

Secure Communication and Secure Channels Authorization

Types of Threats
Interception Interruption Modification Fabrication

Security Mechanisms
Encryption Authentication Authorization Auditing

Design Issue: Focus of Control

‡ a) b)

c)

Three approaches for protection against security threats Protection of data against invalid operations : Data Integrity and constraints. Protection against unauthorized invocations (access controls on object interface / implementation). Granualities of Access Control Protection against unauthorized users. User roles

Design Issue: Layering of Security Mechanisms ; Trust

‡ The logical organization of a distributed system into several layers.

A system is either secure or not. Whether a client considers a system secure ? Trust based. How secure services are in a layer ?

Layering of Security Mechanisms

‡ Several sites connected through a wide-area backbone service (eg switched multimegabit data service). Or Secure SL or Secure RPC service

Design Issue: Distribution of Security Mechanisms

‡ Trusted Computing Base: Smaller (set of security mech to enforce security policy) ‡ The principle of RISSC (Reduced Interfaces for Secure System Components)as applied to secure distributed systems.

Example: Globus Security Architecture

‡ Diagram of Globus security architecture.