ASSIGN 1 DUE 30 sept 2022

a) Consider two random scanning worms (i.e., like Code Red or Slammer) called A
and B, that each select IP addresses to infect at random (out of roughly 4
billion IP addresses on the Internet). Worm A targets a vulnerability present in
1,000,000 hosts and each worm instance targets 10 IP random addresses per
second. Worm B targets a different vulnerability present in 10,000 hosts, but
targets 1000 IP random addresses per second.
i. Assuming both worms start at the same time, after one minute which worm
do you expect will have compromised more additional hosts and why?
[4]
ii. Assuming both worms start at the same time, after one day, which worm do
you expect will have compromised more additional hosts and why?
[2]

a. Explain what is meant by a digital signature and describe how it is generated.

[6]

b) Answer the following questions on Denial of Service.

i. What is denial of service (DOS) attack? [2]
ii. Describe the following examples of DOS attacks: Smurf, Ping flood and Fraggle.
In your description suggest a possible solution to each DOS attack
[6]
b)
c) You find a USB flash drive in the parking lot with a “2022 salaries” label on it.
i. What would you do with it? [4]
ii. How would you prevent this kind of attack from being successfully
carried out? [4]
b) Dictionary attacks can be prevented by using password salting. Describe how
password salting is applied. [3]
c) The principle of “need to know” in information security advocates that each
user should have access to only as much information as needed to carry out
 the tasks they are assigned, and no more (least privilege access). What are the
potential shortcomings of such an approach to security? [4]

d) Suppose the following groups are defined to shorten a system’s access

control lists:

– Group1: Alice, Bob, Cynthia, David, Eve

– Group2: Alice, Bob, Cynthia

– Group3: Bob, Cynthia

Suppose the access control list for File 1 is:

– File 1: Group 1, R; Group 2, RW

If Alice wants to write to File 1 giving your reasoning , state whether Alice

will be allowed to do so if:

i) The first relevant entry policy is applied

ii) The any permission in list policy is applied

Suppose the access control list for File 2 is:

– File 2: Group 3, RWE

iii) Show how the need for a Group 3 for File 2 can be removed using

access none. [5]

 ASSIGN 2 DUE 7 Oct 2022
a) Most users these days are using mobile devices in their day to day lives and there
are several known types of wireless attacks that must be protected against. Give
any five such attacks. [5]
b)
c) Cloud computing is a much talked about technology that we are using on a daily
basis but has its advantages and disadvantages.
d) Define cloud computing. [2]
e) Give any three advantages and any two disadvantages of cloud computing.
[5]
f) Figure 2 below shows the header file at the Network layer of the TCP/IP stack.
Explain the function of any two components of the Header file. [4]
g)
h) Figure 2 TCP/IP Header
i) Security models play an instrumental role in implementation of security policies.
Briefly describe the Brewer-Nash (Chinese Wall) model and explain its relevance to
computer security. [4]
j)
k) James and Alexander are having a debate about Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
James says that it is simply a way of authenticating users. However, Alexander
argues that it is a type of encryption algorithm. They have asked you to decide
who is correct.
i. Briefly outline the purpose of PKI. [2]
ii. You should also explain what is meant by a certificate authority and
digital certificate. [4]
iii. Are James’s and Alexander’s opinions about Public Key Infrastructure
correct? Explain why. [4]

l) In figure 1 below questions assume we are trying to control-hijack a program

vulnerable through a stack-smashing attack. Assume that for this question the
Operating System is Linux and the memory addresses are 4 bytes long. All
programs are assumed to be written in the C programming language. Also assume
that vulnerable has the following method called from its main(), whose inputs can
be controlled by the attacker. In the function below, the programmer intends to
copy a substring of the string str to the buffer buf. The substring starts at position
pos1 in str and ends at pos2. The programmer carefully checks the length substring
before using malloc to allocate memory for the buffer. Assumes the string is
indexed as follows: the leftmost character is at position 0, and so on.

i n t p a r s e s t r i n g ( char ∗ s t r , i n t pos1 , i n t p o s 2 ) {
.
.
.
Char b u f [ 1 0 2 4 ] ;
i f ( pos2−p o s 1 > 1 0 2 4 )
e x i t ( −1 );
s t r c p y ( bu f , s t r ) ;
.
.
.
return1;
}
 Figure 1 String copy code

i. Explain how there can be a buffer overflow in the above program.

[4]
ii. How would you fix the above code such that there is no possibility of a
buffer overflow. [2]
m) Intrusion detection systems are a common security tool in modern day business or
home environments and they come in different forms. Give two general
approaches to intrusion detection that Host-based intrusion detection systems
follow. [4]