@article {Alcaraz2023b, title = {OCPP in the spotlight: threats and countermeasures for electric vehicle charging infrastructures 4.0}, journal = {International Journal of Information Security}, year = {In Press}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Springer Verlag}, abstract = {

Undoubtedly, Industry 4.0 in the energy sector improves the conditions for automation, generation and distribution of energy, increasing the rate of electric vehicle manufacturing in recent years. As a result, more grid-connected charging infrastructures are being installed, whose charging stations (CSs) can follow standardized architectures, such as the one proposed by the open charge point protocol (OCPP). The most recent version of this protocol is v.2.0.1, which includes new security measures at device and communication level to cover those security issues identified in previous versions. Therefore, this paper analyzes OCPP-v2.0.1 to determine whether the new functions may still be susceptible to specific cyber and physical threats, and especially when CSs may be connected to microgrids. To formalize the study, we first adapted the well-known threat analysis methodology, STRIDE, to identify and classify threats in terms of control and energy, and subsequently we combine it with DREAD for risk assessment. The analyses indicate that, although OCPP-v2.0.1 has evolved, potential security risks still remain, requiring greater protection in the future.

}, issn = {1615-5262}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-023-00698-8}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10207-023-00698-8}, author = {Cristina Alcaraz and Jesus Cumplido and Alicia Trivi{\~n}o} } @article {rios2022cpa, title = {Constrained Proximity Attacks on Mobile Targets}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS)}, volume = {25}, number = {10}, year = {2022}, month = {05/2022}, pages = {1 - 29}, publisher = {Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)}, abstract = {

Proximity attacks allow an adversary to uncover the location of a victim by repeatedly issuing queries with fake location data. These attacks have been mostly studied in scenarios where victims remain static and there are no constraints that limit the actions of the attacker. In such a setting, it is not difficult for the attacker to locate a particular victim and quantifying the effort for doing so is straightforward. However, it is far more realistic to consider scenarios where potential victims present a particular mobility pattern. In this paper, we consider abstract (constrained and unconstrained) attacks on services that provide location information on other users in the proximity. We derive strategies for constrained and unconstrained attackers, and show that when unconstrained they can practically achieve success with theoretically optimal effort. We then propose a simple yet effective constraint that may be employed by a proximity service (for example, running in the cloud or using a suitable two-party protocol) as countermeasure to increase the effort for the attacker several orders of magnitude both in simulated and real-world cases.

}, keywords = {Location Privacy, mobility pattern, proximity attacks, quantification}, issn = {2471-2566}, doi = {10.1145/3498543}, author = {Xueou Wang and Xiaolu Hou and Ruben Rios and Nils Ole Tippenhauer and Martin Ochoa} } @article {Hiroshi18IoT, title = {Feasibility of Societal Model for Securing Internet of Things}, journal = {KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems}, volume = {12}, number = {8}, year = {2018}, month = {08/2018}, pages = {3567-3588}, publisher = {KSII}, abstract = {

In the Internet of Things (IoT) concept, devices communicate autonomously with applications in the Internet. A significant aspect of IoT that makes it stand apart from present-day networked devices and applications is a) the very large number of devices, produced by diverse makers and used by an even more diverse group of users; b) the applications residing and functioning in what were very private sanctums of life e.g. the car, home, and the people themselves. Since these diverse devices require high-level security, an operational model for an IoT system is required, which has built-in security. We have proposed the societal model as a simple operational model. The basic concept of the model is borrowed from human society {\textendash} there will be infants, the weak and the handicapped who need to be protected by guardians. This natural security mechanism works very well for IoT networks which seem to have inherently weak security mechanisms. In this paper, we discuss the requirements of the societal model and examine its feasibility by doing a proof-of-concept implementation.

}, keywords = {Internet of Things, IoT, network architecture, operational model, security, SNMP}, issn = {1976-7277}, doi = {10.3837/tiis.2018.08.003}, url = {http://www.itiis.org/digital-library/manuscript/2082}, author = {Hiroshi Tsunoda and Rodrigo Roman and Javier Lopez and Glenn Mansfield Keeni} } @article {Roman2010a, title = {Advanced Secure Multimedia Services for Digital Homes}, journal = {Information Systems Frontiers}, volume = {14}, year = {2012}, month = {July 2012}, pages = {527-540}, publisher = {Springer}, abstract = {

Our society is becoming increasingly more IT-oriented, and the images and sounds that reflect our daily life are being stored mainly in a digital form. This digital personal life can be part of the home multimedia contents, and users demand access and possibly share these contents (such as photographs, videos, and music) in an ubiquitous way: from any location and with any device. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we introduce the Feel@Home system, whose main objective is to enable the previously mentioned vision of an ubiquitous digital personal life. Second, we describe the security architecture of Feel@Home, analyzing the security and privacy requirements that identify which threats and vulnerabilities must be considered, and deriving the security building blocks that can be used to protect both IMS-based and VPN-based solutions.

}, keywords = {Content sharing, Digital home, Multimedia, privacy, security}, issn = {1387-3326}, doi = {10.1007/s10796-010-9258-9}, url = {http://www.springerlink.com/content/1785645v5246006u/}, author = {Rodrigo Roman and Javier Lopez and Olivier Dugeon and Marc Lacoste and Pierre Plaza Tron and Marta Bel} } @article {VicenteBenjumea2008, title = {Anonymity Analysis in Credentials-based Systems: A Formal Framework}, journal = {Computer Standards \& Interfaces}, volume = {30}, number = {4}, year = {2008}, pages = {253-261}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {

Anonymity has been formalized and some metrics have been defined in the scope of anonymizing communication channels. In this paper, such formalization has been extended to cope with anonymity in those scenarios where users must anonymously prove that they own certain privileges to perform remote transactions. In these types of scenarios, the authorization policy states the privileges required to perform a given remote transaction. The paper presents a framework to analyze the actual degree of anonymity reached in a given transaction and allows its comparison with an ideal anonymity degree as defined by the authorization policy, providinga tool to model, design and analyze anonymous systems in different scenarios.

}, issn = {0920-5489}, author = {Vicente Benjumea and Javier Lopez and Jose M. Troya} } @article {VicenteBenjumea2006a, title = {Anonymous Attribute Certificates based on Traceable Signatures}, journal = {Internet Research}, volume = {16}, number = {2}, year = {2006}, pages = {120-139}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Anonymous attribute certificates were introduced by Benjumea et. al (Benjumea, 2004) in order to integrate anonymity capabilities in the standardized X.509 attribute certificates. That solution was based on the use of fair-blind signatures, but did not ex}, abstract = {

In Benjumea et. al (Benjumea, 2004) we introduced the concept of anonymousattribute certificates in order to integrate anonymity capabilities in the standardizedX.509 attribute certificates. That solution was based on the use of fair-blind signatures(Stadler, 1995), but did not explore further possibilities of constructing similar datastructures based on more advanced signature schemes. In this new work, we propose anew type of anonymous attribute certificates that is based on the more recently proposedtraceable signature scheme (Kiayias, 2004a), providing a new anonymous authorizationsolution with interesting features that were not covered in the aforementioned scheme.Thus, this new solution allows users to make use of their attribute certificates in ananonymous way, but under certain circumstances it allows to disclose the users\’ identities,trace the transactions carried out by any specific user, or revoke any anonymousattribute certificate. An additional contribution of this work is that it pays special attentionto the preservation of the unlinkability property between transactions, makingimpossible the creation of anonymous user profiles.

}, issn = {1066-2243}, author = {Vicente Benjumea and Javier Lopez and Jose M. Troya} } @article {VicenteBenjumea2006, title = {Specification of a Framework for the Anonymous Use of Privileges}, journal = {Telematics and Informatics}, volume = {23}, number = {3}, year = {2006}, pages = {179-195}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {

In this paper we have defined an open framework to support open distributed applications where anonymous transactions based on user privileges play an important role. The goal of the framework is to provide a basis to the application level, and is presented from an open and general perspective where many different implementation schemes can fit. Moreover, we have presented a set of requirements that implementation schemes must fulfill to conform a fully anonymous privilege system, which guarantees to supported applications that anonymity will be preserved in remote transactions. Finally, we present an application scenario using the services provided by the framework in order to better show the possibilities of what this type of systems offers.

}, issn = {0736-5853}, author = {Vicente Benjumea and Javier Lopez and Jose M. Troya} } @article {JavierLopez2005b, title = {Security Protocols Analysis: A SDL-based Approach}, journal = {Computer Standards \& Interfaces}, volume = {27}, number = {3}, year = {2005}, pages = {489-499}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {

Organizations need to develop formally analyzed systems in order to achieve well-known formal method benefits. In order to study the security of communication systems, we have developed a methodology for the application of the formal analysis techniques, commonly used in communication protocols, to the analysis of cryptographic protocols. In particular, we have extended the design and analysis phases with security properties. Our proposal uses a specification notation based on one of the most used standard requirement languages HMSC/MSC, which can be automatically translated into a generic SDL specification. The SDL system obtained can then be used for the analysis of the addressed security properties, by using an observer process schema. Besides our main goal to provide a notation for describing the formal specification of security systems, our proposal also brings additional benefits, such as the study of the possible attacks to the system, and the possibility of re-using the specifications produced to describe and analyse more complex systems.

}, issn = {0920-5489}, author = {Javier Lopez and Juan J. Ortega and Jose M. Troya} } @article {AntonioMana2004, title = {A Framework for Secure Execution of Software}, journal = {International Journal of Information Security (IJIS)}, volume = {3}, number = {2}, year = {2004}, pages = {99-112}, publisher = {Springer}, abstract = {

The protection of software applications is one of the most important problems to solve in information security because it has a crucial effect on other security issues.We can find in the literature many research initiatives that have tried to solve this problem, many of them based on the use of tamperproof hardware tokens. This type of solutions depends on two basic premises: (i) to increase the physical security by using tamperproof devices, and (ii) to increase the complexity of the analysis of the software. The first premise is reasonable. The second one is certainly related to the first one. In fact, its main goal is that the pirate user can not modify the software to bypass an operation that is crucial: checking the presence of the token. However, the experience shows that the second premise is not realistic because the analysis of the executable code is always possible. Moreover, the techniques used to obstruct the analysis process are not enough to discourage an attacker with average resources.

In this paper, we review the most relevant works related to software protection, present a taxonomy of those works and, most important, we introduce a new and robust software protection scheme. This solution, called SmartProt, is based on the use of smart cards and cryptographic techniques, and its security relies only on the first of previous premises; that is, Smartprot has been designed to avoid attacks based on code analysis and software modification. The entire system is described following a lifecycle approach, explaining in detail the card setup, production, authorization, and execution phases. We also present some interesting applications of Smart- Prot as well as the protocols developed to manage licenses. Finally, we provide an analysis of its implementation details.

}, issn = {1615-5262}, author = {Antonio Mana and Javier Lopez and Juan J. Ortega and Ernesto Pimentel and Jose M. Troya} } @article {JavierLopez2003c, title = {Integrating PMI Services in CORBA Applications}, journal = {Computer Standards \& Interfaces}, volume = {25}, number = {4}, year = {2003}, pages = {391-409}, abstract = {

Application-level access control is an important requirement in many distributed environments. For instance, in new scenarios such as e-commerce, access to resources by previously unknown users is an essential problem to be solved. The integration of Privilege Management Infrastructure (PMI) services in the access control system represents a scalable way to solve this problem. Within the CORBA standards, the Resource Access Decision (RAD) facility is a mechanism used by security-aware applications to obtain authorization decisions and to manage access decision policies. This paper presents PMI-RAD, an approach to integrate the services of an external PMI into CORBA applications using the RAD facility. In particular, the integration of the external PMI in the access control system is based on the semantic description of the PMI services. Our RAD implementation requests and verifies attribute certificates from the PMI in a transparent way for CORBA objects.

}, issn = {0920-5489}, author = {Javier Lopez and Antonio Mana and Juan J. Ortega and Jose M. Troya and Mariemma I. Yague} } @article {1708, title = {A Secure Solution for Commercial Digital Libraries}, journal = {Online Information Review Journal}, volume = {27}, number = {3}, year = {2003}, pages = {147-159}, publisher = {Emerald}, issn = {1468-4527}, author = {Javier Lopez and Antonio Mana and Ernesto Pimentel and Jose maria troya and Marienma Yague} } @article {JavierLopez2002d, title = {The Role of Smartcards in Practial Information Security}, journal = {ERCIM News}, volume = {49}, year = {2002}, pages = {38-40}, abstract = {

The transition from traditional commerce to electronic and mobile commerce is fostered by aspects like convenience, speed and ease of use. However, security issues remain unsolved. Smart cards open new possibilities for the development of security schemes and protocols that can provide security in applications such as electronic payments or software protection where traditional cryptographic tools are not useful. The GISUM group is involved in several research projects that make use of smart cards. Current applications include a secure electronic forms framework for government-citizen relations, electronic ticketing systems for GMS phones and Internet, a PDA-based digital signature environment, public transport, access control systems, software protection and banking applications. This report focuses on two recent projects: the eTicket electronic ticketing project (1FD97 1269 C02 02 (TAP)), a coordinated project with the Carlos III University of Madrid; and the Alcance project, consisting of the development of a secure electronic forms framework for secure Internet-based communication between citizens and the public administration (1FD97 0850 (TIC)).

}, issn = {0926-4981}, author = {Javier Lopez and Antonio Mana and Pedro Merino and Jose M. Troya} } @article {JavierAreitio2000, title = {Horizontes y Tendencias de Seguridad en Internet}, journal = {Nov{\'a}tica}, volume = {145}, year = {2000}, pages = {65-71}, abstract = {

El comercio electr\ónico est\á llamado a ser el fen\ómeno de mayor importancia en el futuro de Internet. Entre sus aplicaciones se encuentran las compras en l\ínea, la banca electr\ónica, la tele-educaci\ón, los casinos virtuales, los servicios de pago por visi\ón y v\ídeo bajo demanda, etc. Desde el punto de vista de la Seguridad, estas aplicaciones presentan una serie de nuevos requisitos que van a imponer un gran esfuerzo investigador a corto y medio plazo. En este art\ículo se presentan algunos de los m\ás importantes, como la administraci\ón de la confianza, la utilizaci\ón de pagos electr\ónicos, la necesidad de la protecci\ón de la propiedad intelectual, los servicios de protecci\ón de privacidad y anonimato, y la autonom\ía de c\ódigo y la detecci\ón de fraudes, identific\ándose las \áreas de investigaci\ón relacionadas.

}, issn = {0211-2124}, author = {Javier Areitio and Javier Lopez and Jose M. Troya} }