Mastersthesis,

Strategies for the Security Assessment of IoT Devices by Certification Authorities

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University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, Informatikgebäude, 97074 Würzburg, Germany, Bachelor Thesis, (May 2020)

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a global infrastructure that interconnects physical and virtual things based on evolving information and communication technologies. Along with the rise of the IoT, multiple unprecedented forms of security issues and attacks have emerged. While their limited resources disallow the utilization of computing-intensive security measures, the services of IoT devices represent an attractive target for vulnerability exploitation. Certification Authorities (CAs) have responded to the trend and offer security assessments and certification for IoT devices. To ensure qualitative and fair certification, security testing requires well-defined strategies. This bachelor thesis analyzes the existing IoT security assessment models and proposes a novel, CA oriented Testing Guide Model (TGM) for standardized and reproducible assessments. The TGM describes a complete security assessment approach for application in IoT device security certification procedures of CAs. As part of the bachelor thesis, the TGM is specified, implemented, and its applicability evaluated with the help of existing IoT devices. CAs account for the security of certified products. The certification of devices that (subsequently) prove to be insecure can lead to a consumer's loss of trust in the CA. Therefore, the decision for issuing certificates must be comprehensible and made carefully. For the risk estimation of security issues and vulnerabilities, it is common to make use of numerical scoring systems. Well-defined scoring systems allow precise and reproducible estimations. In addition to the introduction of the TGM, this bachelor thesis analyzes the scoring systems established in the field of IT security in regard to their applicability for the scoring of IoT related vulnerabilities, complete IoT devices, and for the specific requirements of CAs. This thesis uncovers incompatibilities and insufficiencies in the existing systems that disallow application for the scoring of IoT devices and for application by CAs. To counter these issues, the thesis introduces a novel Security Scoring System (SSS) for rating IoT devices based on the risks of their vulnerabilities, services, and operational contexts. The SSS is integrated into the TGM, implemented in software, and evaluated with a comparison to the existing scoring systems. To summarize, the contributions of this bachelor thesis are two novel models for the security assessment of devices of the IoT: the TGM and the SSS. The models are intended to find application for CAs and both standardize and improve the security testing and assessment procedures.

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