An Extension of I2NSF Framework for Security Management Automation in Cloud-Based Security Services
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Sungkyunkwan University2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-GuSuwonGyeonggi-Do16419Republic of Korea+82 31 299 4957+82 31 290 7996pauljeong@skku.eduhttp://iotlab.skku.edu/people-jaehoon-jeong.php
Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sungkyunkwan University2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-GuSuwonGyeonggi-Do16419Republic of Korea+82 31 299 4957patricklink@skku.edu
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
218 Gajeong-Ro, Yuseong-GuDaejeon305-700Republic of Korea+82 42 860 6514pjs@etri.re.kr
Security
I2NSF Working GroupInternet-Draft
This document describes an extension of the framework of Interface to
Network Security Functions (I2NSF) for Security Management Automation
(SMA) in cloud-based security services. The security management automation
in this document deals with a security polity translation and a feedback-based
security service enforcement. To support these two features in SMA, this
document specifies an augmented architecture of the I2NSF framework with a new
system component and a new interface.
Interface to Network Security Functions (I2NSF) defines a framework
and interfaces for interacting with Network Security Functions (NSFs)
.
Note that an NSF is defined as software that provides a set of
security-related services, such as (i) detecting unwanted activity,
(ii) blocking or mitigating the effect of such unwanted activity
in order to fulfill service requirements, and (iii) supporting
communication stream integrity and confidentiality .
The NSF can be implemented as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) in
a Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) environment .
This document describes an extension of the framework of Interface to
Network Security Functions (I2NSF) for Security Management Automation
(SMA) in cloud-based security services. The security management automation
includes a security polity translation and a feedback-based
security service enforcement. This document specifies an augmented
architecture of the I2NSF framework for the SMA services with a new
system component and a new interface.
For reliable management for networked security services, this document
proposes a network management and verification facility using a
decentralized audit system (e.g., blockchain ).
This audit system can facilitate the non-repudiation of configuration
commands and monitoring data generated in the I2NSF framework.
Therefore, with the security service automation, this document facilitates
the foundation of Intent-Based Networking (IBN) for intelligent security services
.
This document uses the terminology described in and
.
In addition, the following terms are defined below:
Security Management Automation (SMA): It means that a high-level
security policy from a user (or administrator) is well-enforced in
a target I2NSF system. The high-level security policy can be
translated into the corresponding low-level security policy by a
security policy translator and dispatched to appropriate NSFs.
Through the monitoring of the NSFs, the activity and performace of
the NSFs is monitored and analyzed. If needed, the security rules of
the low-level security policy are augmented or new security rules are
generated and configured to appropriate NSFs.
Security Policy Translation (SPT): It means that a high-level security
policy is translated to a low-level security policy that can be
understood and configured by an NSF for a specific security service,
such as firewall, web filter, deep packet inspection, DDoS-attack
mitigation, and anti-virus.
Feedback-Based Security Management (FSM): It means that a security
service is evolved by updating a security policy (having security rules)
and adding new security rules for detected security attacks by
processing and analzing the monitoring data of NSFs.
This section summarizes the I2NSF framework as defined in .
As shown in ,
an I2NSF User can use security functions by delivering high-level security policies,
which specify security requirements that the I2NSF user wants to enforce, to
the Security Controller via the Consumer-Facing Interface (CFI)
.
The following are the system components for the SMA-based I2NSF framework.
I2NSF User: An entity that delivers a high-level security policy to
Security Controller.
Security Controller: An entity that controls and manages other system
components in the I2NSF framework. It translates a high-level security
policy into the corresponding low-level security policy and selects
appropriate NSFs to execute the security rules of the low-level security
policy.
Developer's Management System (DMS): An entity that provides an image of
of a virtualized NSF for a security service to the I2NSF framework, and
registers the capability and access information of an NSF with Security
Controller.
Network Security Function (NSF): An entity that is a Virtual Network
Function (VNF) for a specific network security service such as firewall,
web filter, deep packet inspection, DDoS-attack mitigation, and anti-virus.
I2NSF Analyzer: An entity that collects monitoring data from NSFs and
analyzes such data for checking the activity and performance of the NSFs
using machine learning techniques (e.g., Deep Learning ).
If there is a suspicious attack activity for the target network or NSF,
I2NSF Analyzer delivers a report of the augmentation or generation of
secuity rules to Security Controller.
For SMA-based security services with Feedback-Based Security Management (FSM),
I2NSF Analyzer as a new I2NSF component is required for the legacy I2NSF
framework to collect monitoring data of NSFs and
analyzing them.
The following are the interfaces for the SMA-based I2NSF framework. Note that
the interfaces are modeled with YANG and security
policies are delivered through either RESTCONF or
NETCONF .
Consumer-Facing Interface: An interface between I2NSF User and Security
Controller for the delivery of a high-level security policy
.
NSF-Facing Interface: An interface between Security Controller and an NSF
for the delivery of a low-level security policy
.
Registration Interface: An interface between a DMS and Security Controller
for the registration of an NSF's capability and access information with
Secutiy Controller or the query of an NSF for a required low-level security
policy .
Monitoring Interface: An interface between an NSF and I2NSF Analyzer for
collecting monitoring data from an NSF to check the activity and performance
of an NSF for a possible malicious traffic .
Application Interface: An interface between I2NSF Analyzer and Security
Controller for the delivery of a report of the augmentation or generation of
secuity rules to Security Controller, and let Security Controller apply it
to its security policy management.
For SMA-based security services with FSM, Application Interface as a new
I2NSF interface is required for the legacy I2NSF framework
to deliver a report of the augmentation or generation of secuity rules to Security
Controller on the basis of the analyzed monitoring data of NSFs.
To facilitate Security Policy Translation (SPT), Security Controller needs to
have a security policy translator that performs the translation of a high-level
security policy into the corresponding low-level security policy.
For the automatic SPT services, the I2NSF framework needs to bridge a high-level
YANG data model and a low-level YANG data model in an automatic manner
.
Note that a high-level YANG data model is for the I2NSF Consumer-Facing Interface
,
and a low-level YANG data model is for the I2NSF NSF-Facing Interface
.
shows automatic
mapping of high-level and low-level data models. Automatic Data Model Mapper
takes a high-level YANG data module for the Consumer-Facing Inteface and
a low-level YANG data module for the NSF-Facing Interface. It then
constructs a mapping table associating the data attributes (or variables) of
the high-level YANG data module with the corresponding data attributes (or
variables) of the low-level YANG data module. Also, it generates a set of
production rules of the grammar for the construction of an XML file of
low-level security policy rules.
shows
high-to-low security policy translation. A security policy translator
is a component of Security Controller. The translator consists of
three components such as Policy Data Extractor, Policy Attribute Mapper,
and Policy Constructor.
Policy Data Extractor extracts attributes related to a security policy
from a high-level security policy XML file that is delivered
from an I2NSF User to a Security Controller
.
Policy Attribute Mapper maps the attributes and their values of a
high-level security policy to the corresponding attributes and their
values of a low-level security policy.
Policy Constructor constructs a low-level security policy XML file
that is delivered from the Security Controller to an appropriate NSF
.
The I2NSF framework is weak to both an inside attack and a supply chain attack
since it trusts in NSFs provided by Developer's Management System (DMS) and
assumes that NSFs work for their security services appropriately.
.
To detect the malicious activity of either an insider attacker with its DMS
or a supply chain attacker with its compromised DMS, an audit system is
required for the I2NSF framework.
For this audit service in the I2NSF framework, a decentralized audit system
(e.g., blockchain ) is required.
This audit system can facilitate the non-repudiation of configuration commands
and monitoring data generated in the I2NSF framework.
To support the audit service in the I2NSF framework, all the components in
the I2NSF framework need to report their activities (such as configuration
commands and monitoring data) to the audit sytem as transactions.
The same security considerations for the I2NSF framework
are applicable to this document.
This document does not require any IANA actions.
Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Architectural FrameworkBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash SystemDeep Learning
This work was supported in part by Institute of Information &
Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant
funded by the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (2020-0-00395,
Standard Development of Blockchain based Network Management Automation
Technology).
This work was supported by the IITP grant funded by the Korea MSIT
(R-20160222-002755, Cloud based Security Intelligence Technology
Development for the Customized Security Service Provisioning).
This document is made by the group effort of I2NSF working group.
Many people actively contributed to this document, such as Linda Dunbar,
Yoav Nir, and Qin Wu.
The authors sincerely appreciate their contributions.
The following are co-authors of this document:
Yunchul Choi
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
218 Gajeong-Ro, Yuseong-Gu
Daejeon, 34129
Republic of Korea
EMail: pjs@etri.re.kr
Younghan Kim
School of Electronic Engineering
Soongsil University
369, Sangdo-ro, Dongjak-gu
Seoul 06978
Republic of Korea
EMail: younghak@ssu.ac.kr