Biblio

We propose an approach to enforce security in disruption- and delay-tolerant networks (DTNs) where long delays, high packet drop rates, unavailability of central trusted entity etc. make traditional approaches unfeasible. We use trust model based on subjective logic to continuously evaluate trustworthiness of security credentials issued in distributed manner by network participants to deal with absence of centralised trusted authorities.

Establishing trust relationships between network participants by having them prove their operating system's integrity via a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides interesting approaches for securing local networks at a higher level. In the introduced approach on OSI layer 2, attacks carried out by already authenticated and participating nodes (insider threats) can be detected and prevented. Forbidden activities and manipulations in hard- and software, such as executing unknown binaries, loading additional kernel modules or even inserting unauthorized USB devices, are detected and result in an autonomous reaction of each network participant. The provided trust establishment and authentication protocol operates independently from upper protocol layers and is optimized for resource constrained machines. Well known concepts of backbone architectures can maintain the chain of trust between different kinds of network types. Each endpoint, forwarding and processing unit monitors the internal network independently and reports misbehaviours autonomously to a central instance in or outside of the trusted network.