Publications

@article{campo002,

title = {Real time detection of malicious DoH traffic using statistical analysis },

author = {Marta Moure-Garrido and Celeste Campo-Vázquez and Carlos García-Rubio},

url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10016/38151},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2023.109910},

issn = {1389-1286},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-10-09},

urldate = {2023-10-09},

journal = {COMPUTER NETWORKS},

volume = {234},

issue = {109910},

pages = {1-10},

abstract = {The DNS protocol plays a fundamental role in the operation of ubiquitous networks. All devices connected to these networks need DNS to work, both for traditional domain name to IP address translation, and for more advanced services such as resource discovery. DNS over HTTPS (DoH) solves certain security problems present in the DNS protocol. However, malicious DNS tunnels, a covert way of encapsulating malicious traffic in a DNS connection, are difficult to detect because the encrypted data prevents performing an analysis of the content of the DNS traffic.



In this study, we introduce a real-time system for detecting malicious DoH tunnels, which is based on analyzing DoH traffic using statistical methods. Our research demonstrates that it is feasible to identify in real-time malicious traffic by analyzing specific parameters extracted from DoH traffic. In addition, we conducted statistical analysis to identify the most significant features that distinguish malicious traffic from benign traffic. Using the selected features, we achieved satisfactory results in classifying DoH traffic as either benign or malicious.},

keywords = {classification, compromise, computer science, cynamon, dns tunnels, doh traffic, intrusion detection system, malicious doh, Qursa, statistical analysis},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{diazsanchez010,

title = {Kriper: A blockchain network with permissioned storage},

author = {MaríaIsabel Rojo-Rivas and Daniel Díaz-Sánchez and Florina Almenarez and Andrés Marín-Lopez},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2022.08.006},

issn = {0167-739X},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-08-17},

urldate = {2022-08-17},

journal = {Future Generation Computer Systems},

volume = {138},

pages = {160-171},

abstract = {Blockchain has been a revolution in the past few years. Beyond the new currencies that were created around different incarnations of the blockchain concept, there are many other contributions that provide interesting services as a data linked structure using a decentralized network that provide a high level of security. Companies have developed many projects to incorporate blockchain into their business logic pursuing to incorporate other related services as persistence of large volumes of data, privacy or anonymity of transactions, distributed data processing, security (confidentiality, integrity, and availability), document management or micro messages in real time. Nevertheless, as it will be discussed in this article, current blockchains do not meet the needs of companies in many aspects, leading to a scarce or superficial adoption. This article introduces Kriper, a blockchain that aims at meeting corporate world needs by responding with a community-based, open blockchain that may also be segregated and private for certain uses whereas it provides a permissioned distributed storage and micro message lightweight services.},

keywords = {Access control, Blockchain, compromise, Confidentiality, cynamon, Distributed storage, Permissioned storage, privacy, ricon},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{campo003,

title = {Entropy-Based Anomaly Detection in HouseholdElectricity Consumption},

author = {Marta Moure-Garrido and Celeste Campo-Vázquez and Carlos García-Rubio},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/en15051837},

issn = {1996-1073},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-03-02},

urldate = {2022-03-02},

journal = {Energies},

volume = {15},

abstract = {Energy efficiency is one of the most important current challenges, and its impact at a global level is considerable. To solve current challenges, it is critical that consumers are able to control their energy consumption. In this paper, we propose using a time series of window-based entropy to detect anomalies in the electricity consumption of a household when the pattern of consumption behavior exhibits a change. We compare the accuracy of this approach with two machine learning approaches, random forest and neural networks, and with a statistical approach, the ARIMA model. We study whether these approaches detect the same anomalous periods. These different techniques have been evaluated using a real dataset obtained from different households with different consumption profiles from the Madrid Region. The entropy-based algorithm detects more days classified as anomalous according to context information compared to the other algorithms. This approach has the advantages that it does not require a training period and that it adapts dynamically to changes, except in vacation periods when consumption drops drastically and requires some time for adapting to the new situation.},

keywords = {anomaly detection, behavior pattern, compromise, cynamon, entropy, household electricity consumption, load forecasting, magos},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{campos004,

title = {Performance evaluation of CoAP and MQTT with security support for IoT environments},

author = {Victor Seoane-Merida and Carlos García-Rubio and Florina Almenares-Mendoza and Celeste Campo-Vázquez},

url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10016/33795},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2021.108338},

issn = {1389-1286},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-10-04},

urldate = {2021-10-04},

journal = {COMPUTER NETWORKS},

volume = {197},

issue = {108338},

pages = {1-22},

abstract = {World is living an overwhelming explosion of smart devices: electronic gadgets, appliances, meters, cars, sensors, camera and even traffic lights, that are connected to the Internet to extend their capabilities, constituting what is known as Internet of Things (IoT). In these environments, the application layer is decisive for the quality of the connection, which has dependencies to the transport layer, mainly when secure communications are used. This paper analyses the performance offered by these two most popular protocols for the application layer: Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) and Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT). This analysis aims to examine the features and capabilities of the two protocols and to determine their feasibility to operate under constrained devices taking into account security support and diverse network conditions, unlike the previous works. Since IoT devices typically show battery constraints, the analysis is focused on bandwidth and CPU use, using realistic network scenarios, since this use translates to power consumption.},

keywords = {coap, cynamon, Internet of Things, magos, mqtt, Performance evaluation, Security},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{marin002,

title = {Security Information Sharing in Smart Grids: Persisting Security Audits to the Blockchain},

author = {Andrés Marín-López and Sergio Chica-Manjarrez and David Arroyo and Florina Almenares-Mendoza and Daniel Díaz-Sánchez },

url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/11/1865

},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9111865},

issn = {2079-9292},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-11-06},

urldate = {2020-11-06},

journal = {Electronics},

volume = {9},

pages = {1865},

abstract = {With the transformation in smart grids, power grid companies are becoming increasingly

dependent on data networks. Data networks are used to transport information and commands for

optimizing power grid operations: Planning, generation, transportation, and distribution. Performing

periodic security audits is one of the required tasks for securing networks, and we proposed in a

previous work AUTOAUDITOR, a system to achieve automatic auditing. It was designed according

to the specific requirements of power grid companies, such as scaling with the huge number of

heterogeneous equipment in power grid companies. Though pentesting and security audits are

required for continuous monitoring, collaboration is of utmost importance to fight cyber threats.

In this paper we work on the accountability of audit results and explore how the list of audit result

records can be included in a blockchain, since blockchains are by design resistant to data modification.

Moreover, blockchains endowed with smart contracts functionality boost the automation of both

digital evidence gathering, audit, and controlled information exchange. To our knowledge, no such

system exists. We perform throughput evaluation to assess the feasibility of the system and show

that the system is viable for adaptation to the inventory systems of electrical companies.},

keywords = {cynamon, inteligenciafuentesabiertas, permissioned blockchain, scalability, security auditing, smart grid security},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Diaz_Sanchez_2019,

title = {DNS/DANE Collision-Based Distributed and Dynamic Authentication for Microservices in IoT †},

author = {Daniel Díaz-Sánchez and Andrés Marín-Lopez and Florina Almenárez Mendoza and Patricia Arias Cabarcos},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19153292

/download/DNS_DANE_Collision-Based_Distributed_and_Dynamic_Authentication_for_Microservices_in_IoT.pdf},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/s19153292},

issn = {1424-8220},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-26},

urldate = {2019-07-26},

journal = {Sensors},

volume = {19},

issue = {15},

pages = {1-23},

publisher = {MDPI AG},

abstract = {IoT devices provide real-time data to a rich ecosystem of services and applications. The volume of data and the involved subscribe/notify signaling will likely become a challenge also for access and core networks. To alleviate the core of the network, other technologies like fog computing can be used. On the security side, designers of IoT low-cost devices and applications often reuse old versions of development frameworks and software components that contain vulnerabilities. Many server applications today are designed using microservice architectures where components are easier to update. Thus, IoT can benefit from deploying microservices in the fog as it offers the required flexibility for the main players of ubiquitous computing: nomadic users. In such deployments, IoT devices need the dynamic instantiation of microservices. IoT microservices require certificates so they can be accessed securely. Thus, every microservice instance may require a newly-created domain name and a certificate. The DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) extension to Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) allows linking a certificate to a given domain name. Thus, the combination of DNSSEC and DANE provides microservices’ clients with secure information regarding the domain name, IP address, and server certificate of a given microservice. However, IoT microservices may be short-lived since devices can move from one local fog to another, forcing DNSSEC servers to sign zones whenever new changes occur. Considering DNSSEC and DANE were designed to cope with static services, coping with IoT dynamic microservice instantiation can throttle the scalability in the fog. To overcome this limitation, this article proposes a solution that modifies the DNSSEC/DANE signature mechanism using chameleon signatures and defining a new soft delegation scheme. Chameleon signatures are signatures computed over a chameleon hash, which have a property: a secret trapdoor function can be used to compute collisions to the hash. Since the hash is maintained, the signature does not have to be computed again. In the soft delegation schema, DNS servers obtain a trapdoor that allows performing changes in a constrained zone without affecting normal DNS operation. In this way, a server can receive this soft delegation and modify the DNS zone to cope with frequent changes such as microservice dynamic instantiation. Changes in the soft delegated zone are much faster and do not require the intervention of the DNS primary servers of the zone.},

keywords = {authentication, chameleon signatures, cynamon, DANE, DNSSEC, Internet of Things, magos, microservices},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{8704893,

title = {TLS/PKI Challenges and Certificate Pinning Techniques for IoT and M2M Secure Communications},

author = {Daniel Díaz-Sánchez and Andrés Marín-López and Florina Almenárez-Mendoza and Patricia Arias-Cabarcos and R. Simon-Sherratt},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2019.2914453

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8704893

https://phpmyadmin.pervasive.it.uc3m.es/download/TLC-PKI-challenges-certificate-pinning.pdf},

doi = {10.1109/COMST.2019.2914453},

issn = {1553-877X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-05-02},

urldate = {2019-05-02},

journal = {IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials},

volume = {21},

issue = {4},

pages = {3502-3531},

abstract = {Transport layer security (TLS) is becoming the de facto standard to provide end-to-end security in the current Internet. IoT and M2M scenarios are not an exception since TLS is also being adopted there. The ability of TLS for negotiating any security parameter, its flexibility and extensibility are responsible for its wide adoption but also for several attacks. Moreover, as it relies on public key infrastructure (PKI) for authentication, it is also affected by PKI problems. Considering the advent of IoT/M2M scenarios and their particularities, it is necessary to have a closer look at TLS history to evaluate the potential challenges of using TLS and PKI in these scenarios. According to this, this paper provides a deep revision of several security aspects of TLS and PKI, with a particular focus on current certificate pinning solutions in order to illustrate the potential problems that should be addressed.},

keywords = {authentication, certificate pinning, cynamon, DTLS, Internet of Things, Machine to Machine, magos, PKI, Protocols, TLS, Trusted Third Party, Tutorials},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}