A framework for investigating security attacks in ATM networks

Abstract

While the occurrence and impact of attacks launched against telephone networks, data networks, and the power grid, are widely reported in the news media, a systematic analysis of these attacks in the scientific literature is lacking. This paper presents a fundamental analysis of the state-of-the-art, ATM networks, leading to a systematic and comprehensive identification of every weakness in ATM networks that may be exploited by a perpetrator to launch security attacks. The vulnerability analysis effort builds on the fundamental framework for network security already proposed in the literature, and focuses on the four key components of ATM networks-switch fabric, call processor, ATM links, and the basic ATM operating principles. This paper identifies and describes the nature of the attacks that are capable of triggering the vulnerabilities. Most of the attacks will be synthesized specifically for every susceptibility. An attack may be viewed as a perturbation of an operationally correct ATM network. The focus is on identifying complex attacks that while based on the ATM fundamentals, are representative of those that would be construed by intelligent enemy agents. Attacks are organized into two broad categories. The first attack type focuses on failing specific, standard functions in ATM networks while the second category of attacks refers to the prescription of a malicious intent or objective. The attacks are modeled utilizing a representative, ATM network and validated through a simulation utilizing an asynchronous, distributed, and accurate ATM simulator, that executes on a network of Pentium workstations under Linux, configured as a loosely-coupled parallel processor.