Threat Modeling for Cloud Data Center Infrastructures

Published

December 29, 2016

Author(s)

Nawaf Alhebaishi, Lingyu Wang, Sushil Jajodia, Anoop Singhal

Abstract

Cloud computing has undergone rapid expansion throughout the last decade. Many companies and organizations have made the transition from traditional data centers to the cloud due to its flexibility and lower cost. However, traditional data centers are still being relied upon by those who are less certain about the security of cloud. This problem is highlighted by the fact that there only exist limited efforts on threat modeling for cloud data centers. 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 give cloud providers practical lessons and means toward better evaluating, understanding and improving their cloud infrastructures. Our results may also imbed more confidence in potential cloud tenants by providing them a clearer picture about potential threats in cloud infrastructures and corresponding solutions.

Proceedings Title

9th International Conference on Foundations and Practice of Security

Conference Dates

October 24-26, 2016

Conference Location

Quebec City, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51966-1_20

Local Download

Keywords

Security Metrics, Cloud Security, Attack Surface, Attack Graphs, Attack Trees

Citation

Alhebaishi, N. , Wang, L. , Jajodia, S. and Singhal, A. (2016), Threat Modeling for Cloud Data Center Infrastructures, 9th International Conference on Foundations and Practice of Security, Quebec City, CA, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51966-1_20, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921695 (Accessed April 25, 2024)