Threat Modeling for Cloud Infrastructures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.10-1-2019.156246Keywords:
Threat Modeling, Cloud Infrastructure, Attack Surface, Attack Tree, Attack Graph, Security Metrics, Network HardeningAbstract
Today’s businesses are increasingly relying on the cloud as an alternative IT solution due to its flexibility and lower cost. Compared to traditional enterprise networks, a cloud infrastructure is typically much larger and more complex. Understanding the potential security threats in such infrastructures is naturally more challenging than in traditional networks. This is evidenced by the fact that there are limited efforts on threat modeling for cloud infrastructures. In this paper, we conduct comprehensive threat modeling exercises based on two representative cloud infrastructures using several popular threat modeling methods, including attack surface, attack trees, attack graphs, and security metrics based on attack trees and attack graphs, respectively. Those threat modeling efforts may provide cloud providers useful lessons toward better understanding and improving the security of their cloud infrastructures. In addition, we show how hardening solution can be applied based on the threat models and security metrics through extended exercises. Such results may not only benefit the cloud provider but also embed more confidence in cloud tenants by providing them a clearer picture of the potential threats and mitigation solutions.
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Copyright (c) 2022 EAI Endorsed Transactions on Security and Safety
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 license, which permits unlimited use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
Funding data
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Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Grant numbers N01035