INTE2401/2402 Cloud Security Assignment 1

1. Overview

The objective of Assignment 1 is evaluating your knowledge on the topics covered in Lecture 1-4. Topics include Basic Security Techniques, Secret Key Encryption Techniques, and Public-Key Techniques for Cloud Computing. Assignment 1 will focus on developing your abilities in application of knowledge, critical analysis and decision making. Assignment 1 contains several problems related to the topics mentioned above. You are required to prepare the solutions and upload them as a single PDF or Word document in CANVAS.

In this assignment, there are 3 (three) questions related to AWS. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS Key Management Service uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm with 128-bit secret keys for Server-Side Encryption. The first question Q1 of this assignment is about the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This question has two main parts. In the first part, you are expected to generate the first-round key of AES. In the second part, you are expected to perform one round encryption of AES completely. Through this question, you are expected to understand the encryption process of AES in details.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Amazon EC2 uses Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS #1) to encrypt and decrypt login information. The second question Q2 of this assignment is about using the PKCS #1 to protect login information. This question has three main parts. In the first part, you are expected to generate PKCS #1 public key and compute PKCS #1 private key. In the second part, you are expected to perform PKCS #1 encryption on a login information. In the third part, you are expected to perform PKCS #1 decryption. Through this question, you are expected to understand PKCS #1 for Amazon EC2.

Each instance that you launch in AWS has an instance identity document that provides information about the instance itself. The instance identity document is generated when the instance is launched and it is exposed (in plaintext) through the Instance Metadata Service. The last question of the assignment is about using the ECC NIST P-256 signature standard to sign and verify the instance identity document. The question has three main parts. In the first part, you are expected to generate your public and private key pair for ECC NIST P-256 signature standard.  In the second part, you are expected to sign an instance identity document. In the third part, you are expected to verify the signature on the instance identity document. Through this question, you are expected to understand ECC NIST P-256 signature standard for AWS.  

Develop this assignment in an iterative fashion (as opposed to completing it in one sitting). You should be able to start preparing your answers immediately after the Lecture-1 (in Week-1). At the end of each week starting from Week-1 to Week-4, you should be able to solve at least one question.

If there are questions, you may ask via the relevant Canvas discussion forums in a general manner.

2. Learning outcomes

This assessment is relevant to the following Learning Outcomes:

• understand the security issues of cloud computing.
• learn how the underlying secret key encryption techniques work for cloud.
• lean how the underlying public-key techniques work for cloud.

3. Submission

You must follow the following special instructions:

• You must use the values provided in the questions.
• Hand-written answers are not allowed and will not be assessed. Compose your answers using any word processing software (e.g. MS Word).
• You are required to show all of the steps and intermediate results for each question.
• Upload your solution as a single PDF or Word document in CANVAS.

This assessment will determine your ability to:

• Follow requirements provided in this document and in the lessons.
• Independently solve a problem by using security concepts taught over the first four weeks of the course.
• Meeting deadlines.

After the due date, you will have 5 business days to submit your assignment as a late submission. Late submissions will incur a penalty of 10% per day. After these five days, Canvas will be closed and you will lose ALL the assignment marks.

4. Assessment details

Please ensure that you have read Section 1 to 3 of this document before going further. Assessment details (i.e. question Q1 to Q5) are provided in the next page.

Q1. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)                                                                                         (Marks: 5=1+1+1+1+1)                                                                                                                  

Q2. Use PKCS #1 to Protect Cloud Login Information                                                                      (Marks: 5=1+1+1+1+1)

Q3. Verify Instance Identity Document with ECC Signature Standard                                        (Marks: 5=1+1+1+1+1)

Academic integrity and plagiarism (standard warning)

Academic integrity is about honest presentation of your academic work. It means acknowledging the work of others while developing your own insights, knowledge and ideas. You should take extreme care that you have:

• Acknowledged words, data, diagrams, models, frameworks and/or ideas of others you have quoted (i.e. directly copied), summarised, paraphrased, discussed or mentioned in your assessment through the appropriate referencing methods,
• Provided a reference list of the publication details so your reader can locate the source if necessary. This includes material taken from Internet sites.

If you do not acknowledge the sources of your material, you may be accused of plagiarism because you have passed off the work and ideas of another person without appropriate referencing, as if they were your own.

RMIT University treats plagiarism as a very serious offence constituting misconduct.  Plagiarism covers a variety of inappropriate behaviours, including:

• Failure to properly document a source
• Copyright material from the internet or databases
• Collusion between students

For further information on our policies and procedures, please refer to the University website.