INSPIRE-5Gplus contributes in IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft) 2022

The H2020-funded INSPIRE-5Gplus project is entirely devoted to improve  security at various dimensions in 5G, i.e., overall vision, use cases,  architecture, integration to network management, assets, and models.  Since its beginning in 2019, it is addressing key security challenges through vertical  applications ranging from autonomous and connected cars to Critical  Industry 4.0.  In this direction, it has progressed and developed a novel architecture conferring end-to-end and cross-domain security enforcement with trust and liability for 5G and beyond SLAs (Service Level Agreements). It regroups, coordinates and interfaces enablers acting at different layers and endowing different security, trust and liability management functions.

As a recent prominent contribution, INSPIRE-5Gplus has developed a method to detect and counter Denial-of-Service Attacks in Internet-of-Vehicles which is a critical application area with large growth expected for the future, where attacks could have severe impact not only on material but also on lives. This work will be presented as a paper entitled “Multi-domain Denial-of-Service Attacks in Internet-of-Vehicles: Vulnerability Insights and Detection Performance” in the 4th International Workshop on Cyber-Security in Software-defined and Virtualized Infrastructures (SecSoft), organized by  IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft) 2022, held in Milano, Italy on the 1st of July 2022. In addition, another INSPIRE-5Gplus’ relevant development consisting in an application for aggregation and transformation of the data into a suitable format to be used by analytics engines e.g., AI detectors, will be also presented in the same session with the paper entitled “Model-Driven Network Monitoring Using NetFlow Applied to Threat Detection”. Finally, INSPIRE-5Gplus results made on its state-of-the-art automatic software security systemic solution will also be presented with the paper entitled “Always-Sustainable Software Security”. The aim of these presentations is to widen the awareness of the activities conducted in the project among the scientific and industrial communities in order to create new synergies and strengthen the existing ones.

Below is the summary of the papers to be presented at the event:

In the session entitled “Attack Detection and Threat Identification”, INSPIRE-5Gplus partner CTTC will present latest INSPIRE-5Gplus results on denial-of-service (DoS) attack detection in Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) environments with the paper entitled “Multi-domain Denial-of-Service Attacks in Internet-of-Vehicles: Vulnerability Insights and Detection Performance”. This paper will be presented by Charalampos Kalalas (CTTC) in technical Session. Authors of this paper are Roshan Sedar (CTTC), Charalampos Kalalas (CTTC), Jesus Alonso-Zarate (i2CAT) and Francisco Vázquez-Gallego (i2CAT). In this paper, authors present an in-depth vulnerability assessment of 5G-enabled IoV systems when DoS attack variants are launched at multiple network domains. They further evaluate the resilience of an IoV-tailored authentication mechanism against DoS attacks under various configurations. A data-driven detection scheme is also proposed to address DoS variants in the radio access network, which take the form of false data injection attacks on the exchanged vehicular information. Performance assessment is made with the aid of an open-source dataset, and reveals that the proposed scheme is able to accurately detect DoS traffic originated from malicious vehicles.

Additionally, in the same session, the paper “Model-Driven Network Monitoring Using NetFlow Applied to Threat Detection” will be presented with INSPIRE-5Gplus partner TID as co-author of the paper. The authors of the paper are Daniel González-Sánchez (UPM), Ignacio D. Martinez-Casanueva (UPM), Antonio Pastor (TID), Luis Bellido Triana (UPM), Cristina Pinar Muñoz Zamarro (TID), Alejandro Antonio Moreno Sancho (TID), David Fernández Cambronero (UPM) and Diego Lopez (TID).

The paper focus on the opportunity to integrate model-driven approach for data collection in networks, using YANG models. The work proposes a specific YANG data model for Netflow protocol, a widely used protocol in current network operation for attack detections. Moreover, the solution shows an application for aggregation and transformation of the data into a suitable format to be used by analytics engines, such AI detectors.

In session entitled “ Security Models and Trust Schemes “, INSPIRE-5Gplus partner TAGES will present latest INSPIRE-5Gplus results made on its automatic software security Systemic solution with its paper entitled” Always-Sustainable Software Security”. This paper will be presented by Vincent Lefebvre (TAGES) , co-edited by him and Gianni Santinelli (TAGES).

Beyond the progress made on its solution, the paper presents a novel and disruptive technique to adapt with performance degradation associated with software security. The paper describes a technique, applicable to any type of software security which cope with confidentiality, integrity, illicit use or vulnerability exploitation attacks. The presented solution confers to each of them with better efficiency-to-overhead ratio. In fact, the devised solution leverages trusted execution environment to regulate in a safe place the protection, maintaining  its overhead at an always acceptable level for all types of software. To meet that goal, a significant deviation is made with respect to the standard pre-deployment non-optimal protection setup, using a run time regulation of the protection which detects in near real time “hotspots” (i.e., elevated source of overhead).  The paper illustrates a first implementation and most importantly designs a basic enabler or a technical brick, offering the mean to collect all relevant metrics extracted from the control flow and needed to produce the regulation and optimization of the protection during the software execution.

The solution paves the way to future fully dynamic security adaption to the real and measured threat level with the highest protection level. The solution dovetails greener software security as it assures the best use of the security-related instructions to reach the highest global security at a given CPU cost. Moreover, the solution’s automatic setup will be instrumental in the telecom industry looking at on-demand security, applied by any stakeholders of the value chain.

Keywords: Press release, Cybersecurity;