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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Zero-Trust Architecture for Autonomous Edge Computing

We are at the apex of an aviation revolution where autonomy will play a central role in enabling complex, multi-agent systems to communicate, interact, and collaborate on a myriad of applications spanning autonomous swarms to wild-fire management. Autonomy is not an absolute but rather a spectrum ranging from a system requiring significant human intervention to one requiring little to none [1]. For example, the extreme, in the case of an autonomous aircraft, is one that operates independently in the airspace interacting with all other elements (air traffic controllers, other pilots) as if it were a human pilot. Critical to this vision is an architecture that enables autonomous agents to interact with minimal latency. Edge computing is an emerging architecture where compute and storage is pushed to the ‘edge’ of the network in order to minimize the round-trip time from agent to resource thereby mitigating the latency associated with cloud-only based approaches. Additionally, services can generate massive amounts of data (e.g., video feeds), which may require analysis in near real-time. Moving this data to the cloud for further processing may not be feasible due to latency, bandwidth, and cost. Privacy, security, and reliability can also be improved by edge computing architectures. However, this geo-distributed and dynamic* architecture complicates the establishment of unambiguous network security boundaries and can lead to vulnerabilities including man in the middle attacks, replay attacks, physical security breaches of edge nodes, signal interception, etc. This motivates the need for zero-trust architectures [2–4] which de-emphasize the notion of static network perimeters and, as the name implies, do not instill any innate trust in any particular agent. It is required that all agents must be authorized and approved in every transaction. In this paper, we present a zero-trust architecture suitable for edge-computing applications that demand significant low-latency, security, privacy, and reliability.

zero trust↗
NASA NTRS2009

Computerized Machine for Cutting Space Shuttle Thermal Tiles

A report presents the concept of a machine aboard the space shuttle that would cut oversized thermal-tile blanks to precise sizes and shapes needed to replace tiles that were damaged or lost during ascent to orbit. The machine would include a computer-controlled jigsaw enclosed in a clear acrylic shell that would prevent escape of cutting debris. A vacuum motor would collect the debris into a reservoir and would hold a tile blank securely in place. A database stored in the computer would contain the unique shape and dimensions of every tile. Once a broken or missing tile was identified, its identification number would be entered into the computer, wherein the cutting pattern associated with that number would be retrieved from the database. A tile blank would be locked into a crib in the machine, the shell would be closed (proximity sensors would prevent activation of the machine while the shell was open), and a "cut" command would be sent from the computer. A blade would be moved around the crib like a plotter, cutting the tile to the required size and shape. Once the tile was cut, an astronaut would take a space walk for installation.

Ramirez, Luis E.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Mathematical approaches to secure in-vehicle networks

Modern vehicles rely on numerous small computers called electronic control units (ECUs) that continually communicate life-critical messages, e.g., wheel speeds and steering angle, through a few controller area networks (CANs). Originally designed as a closed network for the life of the vehicle, CAN protocol developed bereft of security features (e.g., authentication or encryption). For emission testing, updates, and other diagnostics, vehicle CANs are now physically accessible, but this comes with vulnerability to cyber attack. Mandatory on-board diagnostic ports (OBD-II) provide adversaries with direct access to the vehicle. Remote attacks, e.g., via Bluetooth or cellular connections, are possible but require deep expertise. In short, the critical networks for vehicle functionality are exposed to remote and local cyber attacks with little to no built-in defenses. Most notably, the infamous 2015 research of Miller and Valasek exhibited a remote takeover of a Jeep’s brakes resulting in a massive recall and ample media coverage.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability

Scientific applications run on high-performance computing (HPC) systems are critical for many national security missions within Sandia and the NNSA complex. However, these applications often face performance degradation and even failures that are challenging to diagnose. To provide unprecedented insight into these issues, the HPC Development, HPC Systems, Computational Science, and Plasma Theory & Simulation departments at Sandia crafted and completed their FY21 ASC Level 2 milestone entitled "Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability." The milestone created a novel integrated HPC system and application monitoring and analysis capability by extending Sandia's Kokkos application portability framework, Lightweight Distributed Metric Service (LDMS) monitoring tool, and scalable storage, analysis, and visualization pipeline. The extensions to Kokkos and LDMS enable collection and storage of application data during run time, as it is generated, with negligible overhead. This data is combined with HPC system data within the extended analysis pipeline to present relevant visualizations of derived system and application metrics that can be viewed at run time or post run. This new capability was evaluated using several week-long, 290-node runs of Sandia's ElectroMagnetic Plasma In Realistic Environments ( EMPIRE ) modeling and design tool and resulted in 1TB of application data and 50TB of system data. EMPIRE developers remarked this capability was incredibly helpful for quickly assessing application health and performance alongside system state. In short, this milestone work built the foundation for expansive HPC system and application data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and feedback framework that will increase total scientific output of Sandia's HPC users.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability (Final)

Scientific applications run on high-performance computing (HPC) systems are critical for many national security missions within Sandia and the NNSA complex. However, these applications often face performance degradation and even failures that are challenging to diagnose. To provide unprecedented insight into these issues, the HPC Development, HPC Systems, Computational Science, and Plasma Theory & Simulation departments at Sandia crafted and completed their FY21 ASC Level 2 milestone entitled "Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability." The milestone created a novel integrated HPC system and application monitoring and analysis capability by extending Sandia’s Kokkos application portability framework, Lightweight Distributed Metric Service (LDMS) monitoring tool, and scalable storage, analysis, and visualization pipeline. The extensions to Kokkos and LDMS enable collection and storage of application data during run time, as it is generated, with negligible overhead. This data is combined with HPC system data within the extended analysis pipeline to present relevant visualizations of derived system and application metrics that can be viewed at run time or post run. This new capability was evaluated using several week-long, 290-node runs of Sandia’s ElectroMagnetic Plasma In Realistic Environments (EMPIRE) modeling and design tool and resulted in 1TB of application data and 50TB of system data. EMPIRE developers remarked this capability was incredibly helpful for quickly assessing application health and performance alongside system state. In short, this milestone work built the foundation for expansive HPC system and application data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and feedback framework that will increase total scientific output of Sandia’s HPC users.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Advanced Technology System Scheduling Governance Model

In the fall of 2005, the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program appointed a team to formulate a governance model for allocating resources and scheduling the stockpile stewardship workload on ASC capability systems. This update to the original document takes into account the new technical challenges and roles for advanced technology (AT) systems and the new ASC Program workload categories that must be supported. The goal of this updated model is to effectively allocate and schedule AT computing resources among all three National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories for weapons deliverables that merit priority on this class of resource. The process outlined below describes how proposed work can be evaluated and approved for resource allocations while preserving high effective utilization of the systems. This approach will provide the broadest possible benefit to the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Inventory of Public Key Cryptography in US Electric Vehicle Charging

Electric vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure are networked systems, which employ high-level communications in support of charging and grid service decisions. Public key cryptography (PKC) underlies much of the security and privacy protections of the information exchange. We are entering a new epoch where quantum computing threats must be seriously considered. A sufficiently large quantum computer, so named Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer (QRQC), will be able to perform the mathematical operations to efficiently attack the underpinnings of traditional PKC, thus jeopardizing the digital foundations for trust, communications security, and data security. Estimates suggest a QRQC can break public key encryption and digital signatures in the manner of tens to hundreds of hours, compared to traditional computing that would demand more than 10 18 years in a brute force-style attack. A consensus belief of quantum theorists, quantum experimenters, and cryptographers suggest that the quantum threat will be likely realized in the next twenty years. To address the threat, post-quantum cryptography, which is cryptosystems that are designed to be secure against both traditional and quantum computing threats, must be adopted. Migration from traditional PKC to quantum-resilient cryptography is a global undertaking and likely represents the largest transition in computing history. The nascent state of EV public key infrastructure, combined with limited adoption of the vehicle secure charging features, presents an opportunity to establish a preference for quantum-resistant cryptography as a step on the migration path. Delays will stunt the efforts as rapidly accelerating EVs sales and huge infrastructure investments will create large growing bases of long-lived vehicles and infrastructure. Migration preparations can commence while NIST continues the process to standardize post-quantum cryptography (PQC), which are quantum-resilient algorithms designed to be secure against traditional and quantum computing threats. The first step in preparing EV charging is to identify the presence of traditional public key cryptography algorithms and applications. With this objective in mind, this report is intended to advise the vehicle manufacturers, charging station manufacturers, charging station operators, charge network providers and other EV charging stakeholders with information on traditional PKC application and the potential risks when PKC becomes insecure. This report, the first in a series of reports discussing the topics existing at the confluence of post-quantum cryptography adoption and EV charging, identifies traditional public key applications employed and identifies potential consequences of leaving EV charging infrastructure vulnerable to quantum computing. The focus remains squarely on the of EV charging and infrastructure with respect to PKC and is believed by the authors to complement the NIST SP 1800-38 Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography. While the report is centered on infrastructure, there are implications to vehicles.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Towards Fully Secure 5G Ultra-Low Latency Communications: A Cost-Security Functions Analysis

Future components to enhance the basic, native security of 5G networks are either complex mechanisms whose impact in the requiring 5G communications are not considered, or lightweight solutions adapted to ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) but whose security properties remain under discussion. Although different 5G network slices may have different requirements, in general, both visions seem to fall short at provisioning secure URLLC in the future. In this work we address this challenge, by introducing cost-security functions as a method to evaluate the performance and adequacy of most developed and employed non-native enhanced security mechanisms in 5G networks. We categorize those new security components into different groups according to their purpose and deployment scope. We propose to analyze them in the context of existing 5G architectures using two different approaches. First, using model checking techniques, we will evaluate the probability of an attacker to be successful against each security solution. Second, using analytical models, we will analyze the impact of these security mechanisms in terms of delay, throughput consumption, and reliability. Finally, we will combine both approaches using stochastic cost-security functions and the PRISM model checker to create a global picture. Our results are first evidence of how a 5G network that covers and strengthened all security areas through enhanced, dedicated non-native mechanisms could only guarantee secure URLLC with a probability of ~55%.

5G networks↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exploring Tradeoffs in Federated Learning on Serverless Computing Architectures

Federated learning is driving the development of new techniques to efficiently and securely use data across multiple sites while using diverse resources. One of these techniques is the use of the serverless computing paradigm to abstract away resource specific configurations, allowing federated learning across heterogeneous environments. However, deploying federated learning across edge resources, the cloud, and traditional HPC sites will require specialized approaches in order to best account for the weaknesses and strengths of each resource. In this work, we explore the new tradeoffs presented by managing a federated learning task across heterogeneous resources and demonstrate these tradeoffs with experiments using a serverless federated learning framework.

Baughman, Matt↗
DOE OSTI2015

Security Analysis of Smart Grid Cyber Physical Infrastructures Using Modeling and Game Theoretic Simulation

Cyber physical computing infrastructures typically consist of a number of sites are interconnected. Its operation critically depends both on cyber components and physical components. Both types of components are subject to attacks of different kinds and frequencies, which must be accounted for the initial provisioning and subsequent operation of the infrastructure via information security analysis. Information security analysis can be performed using game theory implemented in dynamic Agent Based Game Theoretic (ABGT) simulations. Such simulations can be verified with the results from game theory analysis and further used to explore larger scale, real world scenarios involving multiple attackers, defenders, and information assets. We concentrated our analysis on the electric sector failure scenarios and impact analyses by the NESCOR Working Group Study, From the Section 5 electric sector representative failure scenarios; we extracted the four generic failure scenarios and grouped them into three specific threat categories (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) to the system. These specific failure scenarios serve as a demonstration of our simulation. The analysis using our ABGT simulation demonstrates how to model the electric sector functional domain using a set of rationalized game theoretic rules decomposed from the failure scenarios in terms of how those scenarios might impact the cyber physical infrastructure network with respect to CIA.

Availability↗
DOE OSTI2016

Introduction to Numerical Methods [Slides]

These are slides for a lecture for the Parallel Computing Summer Research Internship at the National Security Education Center. This gives an introduction to numerical methods. Repetitive algorithms are used to obtain approximate solutions to mathematical problems, using sorting, searching, root finding, optimization, interpolation, extrapolation, least squares regression, Eigenvalue problems, ordinary differential equations, and partial differential equations. Many equations are shown. Discretizations allow us to approximate solutions to mathematical models of physical systems using a repetitive algorithm and introduce errors that can lead to numerical instabilities if we are not careful.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Malware forensics on mobile devices for DOE-EM applications - 15708

Malware attacks are deployed in order to achieve one of the following goals: To disrupt system functionality; To gather sensitive information; To gain access to private data. The top areas that become primary targets for malware to attack are: Availability, Integrity, Confidentiality. Malware forensics is a particular field where the execution and methods of a malware are studied. Malware activity has increased on unprotected mobile devices. Establishing an accurate and ethical approach is critical when assessing security issues. Knowing the method of execution leads to fewer security risks and prevention of future attacks. Our intentions are not to create a new wave of malware attacks, but to study them and point to possible vulnerabilities that can occur. To create a work-flow for desktop computers, the following benchmarks are used: Using an isolated environment, tracing the host processes, using dynamic analysis to isolate the malware and destroy it. The isolated environment will prevent any malignant code from activating and risking the rest of the computers in the vicinity and/or network. Tracing the host processes, will allow us to read the host and user processes, giving us valuable information on the activities of the device. Using dynamic analysis will allow us to manipulate the malware in a number of ways, such as using a debugger to try and change it. We used a virus and a Trojan to infiltrate a desktop computer for the following reasons: A - The virus will inject itself to force data to connect using a port. B - The Trojan will unlock and grant access to an unauthorized port. With the desktop work-flow in place as a systematic approach for mobile applications, we will investigate how to apply the same methods to the mobile devices. We are currently looking into different ways to develop 'friendly' malware to launch on the Android. We will then try to use malignant Windows malware to infect an Android, and using the work-flow try to come to the same conclusion as with the Android and Desktop, separately.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1996

Cooperative high-performance storage in the accelerated strategic computing initiative

The use and acceptance of new high-performance, parallel computing platforms will be impeded by the absence of an infrastructure capable of supporting orders-of-magnitude improvement in hierarchical storage and high-speed I/O (Input/Output). The distribution of these high-performance platforms and supporting infrastructures across a wide-area network further compounds this problem. We describe an architectural design and phased implementation plan for a distributed, Cooperative Storage Environment (CSE) to achieve the necessary performance, user transparency, site autonomy, communication, and security features needed to support the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). ASCI is a Department of Energy (DOE) program attempting to apply terascale platforms and Problem-Solving Environments (PSEs) toward real-world computational modeling and simulation problems. The ASCI mission must be carried out through a unified, multilaboratory effort, and will require highly secure, efficient access to vast amounts of data. The CSE provides a logically simple, geographically distributed, storage infrastructure of semi-autonomous cooperating sites to meet the strategic ASCI PSE goal of highperformance data storage and access at the user desktop.

Gary, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2013

Network Penetration Testing and Research

This paper will focus the on research and testing done on penetrating a network for security purposes. This research will provide the IT security office new methods of attacks across and against a company's network as well as introduce them to new platforms and software that can be used to better assist with protecting against such attacks. Throughout this paper testing and research has been done on two different Linux based operating systems, for attacking and compromising a Windows based host computer. Backtrack 5 and BlackBuntu (Linux based penetration testing operating systems) are two different "attacker'' computers that will attempt to plant viruses and or NASA USRP - Internship Final Report exploits on a host Windows 7 operating system, as well as try to retrieve information from the host. On each Linux OS (Backtrack 5 and BlackBuntu) there is penetration testing software which provides the necessary tools to create exploits that can compromise a windows system as well as other operating systems. This paper will focus on two main methods of deploying exploits 1 onto a host computer in order to retrieve information from a compromised system. One method of deployment for an exploit that was tested is known as a "social engineering" exploit. This type of method requires interaction from unsuspecting user. With this user interaction, a deployed exploit may allow a malicious user to gain access to the unsuspecting user's computer as well as the network that such computer is connected to. Due to more advance security setting and antivirus protection and detection, this method is easily identified and defended against. The second method of exploit deployment is the method mainly focused upon within this paper. This method required extensive research on the best way to compromise a security enabled protected network. Once a network has been compromised, then any and all devices connected to such network has the potential to be compromised as well. With a compromised network, computers and devices can be penetrated through deployed exploits. This paper will illustrate the research done to test ability to penetrate a network without user interaction, in order to retrieve personal information from a targeted host.

Murphy, Brandon F.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Beyond a series of security nets: Applying STAMP & STPA to port security

Port security is an increasing concern considering the significant role of ports in global commerce and today’s increasingly complex threat environment. Current approaches to port security mirror traditional models of accident causality -- ‘a series of security nets’ based on component reliability and probabilistic assumptions. Traditional port security frameworks result in isolated and inconsistent improvement strategies. Recent work in engineered safety combines the ideas of hierarchy, emergence, control and communication into a new paradigm for understanding port security as an emergent complex system property. The ‘System-Theoretic Accident Model and Process (STAMP)’ is a new model of causality based on systems and control theory. The associated analysis process -- System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) -- identifies specific technical or procedural security requirements designed to work in coordination with (and be traceable to) overall port objectives. This process yields port security design specifications that can mitigate (if not eliminate) port security vulnerabilities related to an emphasis on component reliability, lack of coordination between port security stakeholders or economic pressures endemic in the maritime industry. As a result, this article aims to demonstrate how STAMP’s broader view of causality and complexity can better address the dynamic and interactive behaviors of social, organizational and technical components of port security.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Converged Computing: A Best of Both Worlds of High-Performance Computing and Cloud

Collaboration between Cloud and High Performance Computing (HPC) communities has accelerated in the last half decade. A common goal to run batch workloads combined with a desire for reproducibility, automation, and optimization has led to successful projects that range from container technologies to workload management and security. This span of current and future work defines a novel “Converged Computing” paradigm that aims to combine the best of both worlds, both from a technological and cultural standpoint. Furthermore, in this Special Issue, we review common themes in the space, showcasing current work and encouraging a continued effort toward innovative ideas that will enable the next generations of scientific discovery.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

The Safe Guards Analysis Toolbox for Non-Proliferation Modeling

As nuclear technology becomes more widely available outside of nuclear weapon armed nations, the importance of preventing the illicit development of nuclear weapons has increased dramatically. A system of nuclear safeguards prevents proliferation; stopping the diversion of nuclear material from civilian facilities for the construction of nuclear weapons. These safeguards function through a combination of accountancy measurements that confirm the locations and amounts of nuclear material, and physical security at every nuclear facility. Safeguards Analysis (SGA) is a computational tool-kit developed using the MATLAB Simulink software suite that simulates a system of nuclear safeguards. The code allows users to examine current safeguards systems for weaknesses and to pinpoint the best locations for improvement. Developed as a modular framework, SGA does not directly model material flows, and relies on an outside code for this information. Instead, it represents a series of safeguards measurements that represent the values inspectors would see. Furthermore, SGA is designed to be modular in design, allowing the user to construct as complex or simple a model as needed: simulating an entire fuel-cycle comprising multiple facilities to a single measurement. SGA's use of outside codes for its material flow information makes it applicable to any model available to the user, as opposed to previous work that applied only to a single scenario. This paper discusses the initial development of SGA and the testing of these modules. The tests described in this paper demonstrate that the different pieces of SGA currently work as intended. Future work on the toolbox will develop and test SGA against a more realistic and complicated scenario using the various tools available in SGA. SGA currently has the pieces to perform analysis on safeguards systems, but needs to be tested on large, multi-MBA, systems to ensure the code is capable of handling such large models, to see the effect large models have on calculation speed, and if further work is needed to improve code efficiency. (authors)

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Evaluation of The Dynamic Physical Security Risk Assessment Methodology for Fleet-Wide Applications

The requirements for U.S. nuclear power plants to maintain a large onsite physical security force contribute to their high operational costs. The cost of maintaining the current physical security posture is approximately 10% of the overall operation and maintenance budget for commercial nuclear power plants. The goal of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program’s physical security pathway is to develop tools, methods, and technologies and provide the technical basis for an optimized physical security posture. The conservatisms built into current security postures may be analyzed and minimized to reduce security costs while still ensuring adequate security and operational safety. The research performed at Idaho National Laboratory within LWRS program’s physical security pathway has successfully developed a dynamic force-on-force modeling framework using various computer simulation tools and integrating them with the dynamic assessment Event Modeling Risk Assessment using Linked Diagrams (EMRALD) tool. This integrated process for physical security analysis is named Modeling and Analysis for Safety Security using Dynamic EMRALD Framework (MASS-DEF). This document provides an update on the progress in applying the MASS-DEF process to an operating commercial nuclear power plant as well as additional industry feedback regarding use of the tool for other physical security risk-informed topics. This report is only a summary of the progress and does not contain specific modeling results as those contain sensitive security information. Previous reports described how a user could integrate their plant-specific force-on-force models with the dynamic simulation tool EMRALD, model operator actions, and integrate with probabilistic risk assessment tools, such as CAFTA (Computer Aided Fault Tree Analysis System) or SAPHIRE (Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations), and with thermal-hydraulic tools, such as RELAP-5 or MAAP. Previous reports applied various combinations of available simulations codes with EMRALD using generic plant models to demonstrate how to perform the analysis. This report is an update the progress of applying the dynamic computational framework to an actual nuclear facility using their security scenarios and timelines. This report also provides an update to the procedural guidance for the MASS-DEF process and an overview of the generic models available for use by utilities. This report does not contain any plant’s sensitive information and/or safeguards information. This study’s purpose was to verify that the results achieved using generic models are similar to actual plant results and refine our guidance on the use of the framework. This assessment enables further analysis, such as what-if scenarios and staff-reduction evaluation, thereby optimizing physical security at plants.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗