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UoL CS Notes

Network Security Introduction

COMP211 Lectures

Types of Attacks

There are two general classes of network attacks:

  • Passive Attack

    Hard to detect.

    • Eavesdropping - Packet sniffing.
    • Impersonation - Spoofing source addresses.
  • Active Attacks

    • Man-in-the-Middle Attacks - Actively changing messages on the connection.
    • Hijacking - Taking over an existing connection.
    • Denial of Service - Overloading resources.

Types of Network Security

  • Confidentiality through encryption.
  • Authentication
  • Message Integrity
  • Access & Availability

Cryptography Notation

graph LR
Alice -->|plaintext| ea[Encryption Algorithm]
ka[KA Alice's Encryption Key] -->|kA| ea
ea -->|"ciphertext (only publicly visible part)"| da[Decryption Algorithm]
kb[Bob's Decryption Key] -->|kB| da
da -->|plaintext| Bob

In this system we use the following notation:

  • $m$ - Plaintext Message.
  • $K_A(m)$ - Ciphertext, encrypted with $K_A$

    \[m=K_B(K_A(m))\]