Format Preserving Encryption in Encrypting Credit Cards

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Every time we swipe out credit cards in a point of sale device, our credit card number is read. And, no doubt we need to encrypt it for maintaining security. Format Preserving Encryption or FPE is an encryption technology in which the format of the ciphertext output remains same as format of the plaintext input. So, that would mean if we encrypt a 16 digit credit card number using FPE, the encrypted output will be another 16 digit number.

But, why do we need that ? Let's understand it in more details.

Challenges of encrypting credit card numbers

We can use a block cipher to encrypt credit card numbers. But, there are certain challenges with that approach.

• If we encrypt a 16 digit credit card number using a block cipher, the output will be 34 bytes long. This may break existing applications that expect the credit card number to be a 16 digit number only.
• The 34 byte ciphertext of a 16 digit credit card number obtained using block cipher will contain hexadecimal values containing alphanumeric and special characters. The ciphertext output may not be another credit card number. And, that may break existing applications.
• If the ciphertext is decrypted and encrypted again, it should retain its value. It should not depend on any random seed value to initialize the encryption as it is done in a block cipher.

FPE is an encryption using which credit card numbers can be encrypted in such a way that field length and data type of the plaintext credit card number is preserved across encryption, which would mean, the encrypted output of a 16 digit credit card number will be another 16 digit number which can integrate well with the existing applications.

So, we can say, FPE is like a random permutation which, in this case, takes a 16 digit number as input and gives another 16 digit number as output. But, for a large domain, it is infeasible to precompute a truly random permutation and remember it. FPE uses a secret key to generate pseudorandom permutation of a number in such a way that the computation time for a single value is less and computationally feasible.

How is Format Preserving Encryption done

Format Preserving Encryption uses a block cipher like AES as a primitive. So, if the block cipher algorithm is secure, FPE will be unbreakable.

There are a number of algorithms for Format Preserving Encryption. Some of them are mentioned below :

FPE using Prefix Cipher :

Let's say, there are N numbers from 0 to N-1. First, a block cipher is applied on each of these integers. As a result, we would get another set of integers called weights of those N integers. Next, we can sort the integers as per their weights.

For example,

Let's assume, N is 4.

weight(0) = 0x52786875875878765253865433328645
weight(1) = 0x23868574647366539533289686858585
weight(2) = 0x85375765765765757657312321735711
weight(3) = 0x76353535355535535544429394745455

So,

FPE(0) = 1
FPE(1) = 0
FPE(2) = 3
FPE(3) = 2

FPE using Cycle Walking :

Let's say, S be the set of allowed values for the inputs. In this algorithm, first a block cipher will be applied to each of the inputs. If the output is not in S, block cipher will be applied again on that input, until the output ciphertext is in S.

As this pseudorandom permutation is one-to-one and the domain is finite, the iteration is guaranteed to stop.

FPE using Feistel Network

In this algorithm, the input is first split into two halves L₁ and R₁ and the following operations are performed on each half :

L₂ = R₁

R₂ = L₁ XOR F(k_i, R₁)

Here, a single key k is used with a different tweak in each round, using the round count as the tweak.

Acceptance of FPE


National Institute of Standards and Technology has recommended Format Preserving Encryption for encrypting sensitive data like credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers etc.

This was an introductory article on Format Preserving Encryption just to give some basic information. Hope it solved its purpose.

What is Conficker malware and how to prevent it ?

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A Conficker or Downup or Downadup or Kido is a computer worm that infects a Microsoft Windows machine using some vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Operating System software and creates a botnet of infected computers to steal sensitive information of users including banking credentials, credit card information etc using keyloggers. This malware uses advanced malware techniques and is extremely difficult to control. Since its discovery in 2008, the malware has infected millions of computers.

How does Conficker malware infect a computer ?

Conficker is delivered to an infected system as a Dynamic Link Library or DLL. It cannot run as a standalone program.

The worm first infects a Windows system using certain vulnerabilities in the system and then exploits shellcode to inject the DLL into the running Windows server service. And then, it creates a registry entry to ensure that it runs everytime the machine reboots.

After infecting a computer, Conficker uses a list of websites to find out the IP address of the infected machine. It then uses the IP address to download a small HTTP server and opens that in the infected machine.

Once the HTTP server is up, the worm then scans for other vulnerable machines. Once it finds a vulnerable target machine to infect, it sends the URL of the currently infected machine as a payload to the target vulnerable machine. The remote target machine then downloads the worm from the URL sent and starts infecting other vulnerable machines.

To infect a remote computer in the network, the worm first tries with credentials of the currently logged on user. If it is unsuccessful, it gains a list of user accounts in the target machine and tries to login using each of the username and a list of commonly used weak passwords. The worm then drops a copy of itself in the admin share of the target.

Conficker then creates a remotely scheduled job to activate the copy.

Conficker can also infect a computer using removable drives or USB drives. For that, it first copies itself to the drives using a random file name. It then changes the autorun.inf file to show an additional option to “Open folder to view files” with “Publisher not specified”, when the drive connects with a computer. If a user cannot understand the trick and selects that option, a copy of the worm will start running in the computer.

After infecting a computer, the worm generates a list of domain names using a randomization function seeded with current UTC system date. All the infected machines try to connect to the same set of domain names for updates.

Variants of Conficker malware

There are a number of variants of Conficker worm.

• Conficker.A – This is the first version of the Conficker worm. It relies on Windows Server Service vunerability for its propagation.
• Conficker.B – Conficker.B uses two additional approaches of NetBIOS Share Propagation and USB propagation to infect systems.
• Conficker.C – It uses 50,000+ randomly generated domain names so that the security community cannot block all of the domain registration associated with the A & B variants. It also uses P&P coordination channel for updates.
• Conficker.D – It changed the domain name registration algorithm to generate a large pool of domain names. This variant just updates existing Conficker.C infected machines and does not spread by attacking new systems.
• Conficker.E – It is another update to the Conficker.C code base.

System changes after infection of Conficker malware

After infecting a Windows computer, the worm makes a couple of system changes.

• Conficker changes system settings of the infected computer so that the victim cannot view hidden files.
• It stops Windows Security Center Service which notifies user about security settings.
• It stops Windows Update Auto Update Service.
• It also stops Microsoft Error Reporting Service.
• Conficker resets the infected computer's system restore point and prevents recovery of the system using system restore.
• It disables TCP/IP Tuning
• It also disables third-party security software to avoid detection.
• It deletes backup files.
• It increases traffic on port 445.
• Access to administrator shared files get access denied errors.
• It checks for internet connectivity in the infected system by trying to connect to a list of websites.
• Depending on system date, it builds a URL to download files. The generated URL typically has a domain name that is based on the current system date.
• It increases network traffic in the infected computer, making the system slow.

How to remove Conficker malware from an infected system ?

There are a number of security tools provided by various anti-virus vendors. Some of the links are given below :

• Symantec
• SOPHOS
• McAfee
• Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
• A manual procedure suggested by Microsoft

How to prevent Conficker malware ?

There are a number of steps we can take to prevent us from falling victims of Conficker.

• Keep your system updated with recent patches of security software.
• The malware exploits security vulnerabilities of commonly used software to infect a computer. So, always keep your computer updated with recent security patches of all the commonly used software.
• Keep your Windows system updated with the latest security patches of the Operating System.
• Turn on firewalls in the system.
• Use User Account Control to limit user privileges, so that the worm cannot run exploiting full access to the Windows system.

Fast Flux Networks

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A Fast Flux Network is a network of compromised computers and some public DNS records that change frequently. As a result, the IP address associated with the corresponding domain name changes frequently. This technique is often used by the attackers to hide their malicious websites from detection.

Why Fast Flux Networks

Attackers typically compromise one or more victim computer systems with malware and exploit those to establish a fraudulent website like a Phishing website. The problem of the attackers with this approach is, these websites can be easily tracked down by public DNS name and IP address to shut them down immediately.

So, the attackers started using server address obfuscation. They often use a group of proxy servers to redirect network. But, this approach also does not prove to be much convenient for them because of limited scalability. Moreover, these websites can still be tracked down quickly by international cooperation.

So, the attackers started using Fast Flux Networks.

The basic idea behind a Fast Flux Network is to associate multiple IP addresses to a malicious domain name. These IP addresses are swapped in and out with extremely high frequency, may be in every 3 minutes, with the help of changing DNS records. As a result, a browser connecting to the same malicious website in every three minutes will see different IP address each time and connect to the actual malicious website via different infected computers every time.

How Fast Flux Network works

In Fast Flux Networks, attackers compromise a number of computer systems with malware and then exploit their bandwidth and computation power to build the Fast Flux Network.

In Fast Flux Networks, attackers often use a number of compromised computers as front end systems. These front end systems get the requests from the victims to connect to the malicious website and redirect those requests to the back-end servers.

So, the large pool of rotating IP addresses do not correspond to the actual back-end servers. Instead, they fluctuate among many front end servers which in turn funnel the requests and redirect them to the actual back-end servers.

Fast Flux motherships are the main controlling elements behind the front end servers. They are similar to Command & Control or C & C servers, though they have much more features compared to the C & C servers.

This mothership node is hidden by the front end servers, which make them extremely difficult to track down. They often host both DNS and HTTP services and use web server virtual hosting configuration to manage content availability.

Types of Fast Flux Networks

There are two types of Fast Flux Networks that are widely used by the attackers :

• Single Flux Network
• Double Flux Network

Single Flux Network

In a Single Flux Network, when a victim makes a request to the attacker's website, the request first reaches a front end redirector. This redirector redirects the request to the target website. There are typically a number of nodes that are used as front end redirectors. So, if one node gets detected and shut down, many other compromised hosts can take its position. Using this Single Flux Network, the DNS record corresponding to resolving the IP address of the attacker's website change frequently, may be in every 3 minutes.

Let's understand this with an example.

Suppose, a victim makes a request to access the website malicious.attacker.com using a URL published by the attackers. So, the victim's computer will first make a request to resolve the domain name for malicious.attacker.com.

At this point, the DNS root nameserver will be queried first and it would return the nameserver responsible for the top level domain .com. Next, .com nameserver will be queried to get the nameserver responsible for attacker.com, say ns.attacker.com. Now, ns.attacker.com will be queried to get the IP address for malicious.attacker.com.

For normal DNS lookup, this DNS record usually remains constant. But, in Single Flux Network, this DNS record change frequently to contain multiple IP addresses in round robin fashion.

Double Flux Network

For a Double Flux Network, the victim sends similar DNS query to resolve the IP address for malicious.attacker.com and queries are made in similar fashion to get nameserver of .com and then ns.attacker.com.

But, here the nameserver ns.attacker.com is actually a part of the Double Flux Network and its own IP address itself changes frequently. When a DNS request reaches ns.attacker.com, the nameserver forwards the queries to corresponding mothership node and then a connection is made to the target system.

Advantages of Fast Flux Networks for attackers

There are a couple of reasons because of which the attackers use Fast Flux Networks for their fraudulent activities.

Easy to operate

Fast Flux Networks are easy to operate for the attackers. They just need one powerful back-end server to serve the actual contents and DNS information. The published URL first points to the front end servers which redirect the requests to the actual back-end server. So, the attackers need to maintain only a few number of core systems to host their malicious website, instead of maintaining many servers to host their fraudulent website.

Difficult to investigate

Fast Flux Networks make criminal investigations much difficult. Security experts typically recover a handful of IP addresses corresponding to the disposable front end servers. They are, in most of the cases, spread across multiple jurisdiction, continents, regional languages and time zones. And, that complicates the investigation to a large extent.

Hidden back end servers

Back end servers are hidden by the front end nodes. As a result, it takes much longer to identify and shut down those core back end servers.

Applications of Fast Flux Networks

Fast Flux Networks are responsible for many illegal practices like online pharmacy shops, money mule recruitment sites, phishing websites, illegal adult contents, distribution of malware etc. Even other services like SMTP, POP, IMAP etc can be delivered using Fast Flux Networks.

This article intended to give an introductory information on Fast Flux Networks. Hope you liked this.

What is Zeus Malware and how to prevent it ?

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Zeus, ZeuS or Zbot is a Trojan malware package which is used by the attackers to steal sensitive data of users, especially banking credentials, causing heavy financial losses to the users. This malware was first identified in July 2007 and became more widespread since 2009. Attackers use this malwre to create a botnet and then use that to steal banking credentials of the victim.

How does Zeus malware infect a computer ?

Zeus is one of the most widely known notorious malware which is used by the attackers to create a botnet which silently harvests financial data of the victims and send it back to the attackers. Zeus is basically the name of the malware toolkit which is widely distributed and used by the underworld miscreants to create the information stealing trojans.

A Zeus malware toolkit typically has the following components :

• Builder
• Configuration File
• Exe File
• Server

Builder

Builder is used by the miscreants to create the malware executable file as well as the configuration file. The malware usually uses encryption mechanism to obfuscate itself.

Configuration File

Configuration file is downloaded at the time of execution of the executable malware code. It contains the following information along with some other information :

• URL from which the Zeus executable will be downloaded
• URL to which the stolen data of victims will be sent back
• A set of IP/domain pairs that will be written into the infected host file to hijack DNS requests of the victim's computer

This configuration file is typically stored in the server controlled by the attackers. The bot periodically queries the server to retrieve the information contained in the configuration file. A bot owner may upload a new configuration file at the server at any time to change the configuration.

Exe File

Different underworld botnet customers who use same version of Zeus toolkit typically have the same exe file. But, the configuration file differs from one botnet to the other.

Server

The server component of the toolkit is basically a set of php scripts which are used to monitor, command and collect information from the infected computers.

Steps of infection

 

Zeus malware typically follows the steps mentioned below to infect a computer :

• Firstly the attackers use some social engineering to trick the victims to download the malware. They may send phishing email with malicious links or use some other methods to convince the victims to click on a malicious link. The malware can even get downloaded by exploiting security vulnerabilities of commonly used software of the victim's computer.
• The malware copies itself to a location, execute the copy and then delete it to avoid detection.
• After installation, the malware changes browser settings of the victim's computer. Zeus typically uses Man-In-The-Browser attack (What is a Man-In-The-Browser Attack ? ) to steal sensitive credentials of the victims.
• The malware then infects code to other processes in the victim's computer.
• The injected code hooks apis in each process.
• Next, the configuration file gets downloaded from the server controlled by the attackers.
• The malware then uses api hooks to steal sensitive data, especially banking credentials of the victims.

How does Zeus malware steal sensitive data of victims ?

As mentioned earlier, Zeus uses Man-In-The-Browser attack to steal banking credentials of the victims. It typically follows the steps mentioned below to steal sensitive data of the victims :

• After infecting a computer, the trojan installs a malicious extension to the victim's browser. When the user restarts the browser, it gets loaded automatically.
• The extension registers a handler for every page load, which tracks all the pages loaded by the browser and matches them with a list of known websites.
• Whenever the user loads a page of a banking website, the extension registers a button event handler.
• The user authenticates to the banking website giving his credentials. When the user fills up a form for financial transaction, the extension intercepts the communication. It notes down the data entered by the user, but modifies the data and sends the modified data to the banking web application.
• The web application performs the transaction as per the modified data and sends the receipt.
• The extension again intercepts the communication. It modifies the data in the receipt with the data entered by the user originally.
• The user gets the modified receipt filled up with data provided by him.

How to prevent Zeus malware ?

Zeus malware is one of the most widely known notorious malware which is difficult to detect. But, a user can always follow some simple steps to prevent infection of the malware.

• The malware mostly uses some social engineering to infect a victim's computer. Do not click on any link if you are not very sure of its authenticity. Do not open email attachments if you are not sure of the sender. And, always avoid downloading software from untrusted sources.
• The malware exploits security vulnerabilities of commonly used software to infect a computer. So, always keep your computer updated with recent security patches of all the commonly used software.
• Update your Operating Systems with recent patches for the same reason.
• Keep your browser updated with recent patches. It would reduce the security vulnerabilities present in the browser software.
• Always keep your system updated with recent patches of anti-malware programs from a trusted source.
• Closely monitor any changes in browser settings is one option of preventing this attack. Browser extensions and scripting should be limited. And, do not use any browser extension if you are not very sure about its authenticity.
• Users should educate themselves about Zeus malware and its attacks and use their common sense while using sensitive banking web applications.

So, beware of various malware programs and how to prevent them, so that you can protect your data in a better way. And, stay safe, stay secured.

Certificate Transparency

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When sensitive data is transferred between two hosts, an encrypted communication like TLS is used for that purpose. And, digital certificates have a major role to play in TLS communication.

A TLS server usually issues its digital certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority or CA. When a TLS client wants to establish a TLS connection with the server, the server sends that digital certificate to the client. The client verifies the certificate from the trusted CA and then proceeds with establishing the connection.

But, there are a number of recent incidences where a digital certificate is mistakenly issued by a CA or a CA has been compromised. It is extremely difficult to detect such fraudulent cases in current scenario. Our browsers cannot detect if a malicious website is using a mistakenly issued certificate or a certificate issued by a compromised or rogue CA. As a result, user security gets compromised.

Certificate Transparency is an experimental IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) open standard which is used to monitor and audit digital certificates and to detect suspicious certificates and CAs within a reasonable time frame.

Functional Components

Certificate Transparency has three new functional components to the current SSL certificate system :

• Certificate Log
• Certificate Monitor
• Certificate Auditor

Certificate Log

A Certificate Log is a simple network service that maintains a record of SSL certificates. Any interested entity can submit certificates to the Certificate Log, though it is expected that a CA or server operator submit a certificate to the log. A log is a single, ever growing and append only entity. When an interested party submits a valid digital certificate to the log, the log returns a Signed Certificate Timestamp or SCT. A valid digital certifcate can have a single valid SCT. So, if the log has seen the digital certificate before, it may return the same SCT which it has already returned before.

Anyone who gets a SCT of a certificate from a particular log, can verify it with the log. If there is any inconsistency, that would mean the certificate is compromised.

A Certificate Log is cryptographically assured. It uses a Merkle Hash Tree to maintain the log. A Merkle Hash Tree is a binary tree whose nodes are hashes of two child nodes. (More information on Merkle Tree can be found here : What is a Merkle Tree ? ) The Merkle Hash Tree of a log contains hashes of individual certificates in its leaves. And, every non-leaf node is a hash of its pair of child nodes. The root hash of the Merkle Tree is known as Merkle Tree Hash. The log server signs its Merkle Tree Hash with its secret key and it is known as Signed Tree Head or STH.

The Merkle Tree uses the hashing algorithm SHA-256. And, to sign various data structures, it uses elliptic curve signatures using NIST P-256 curve or RSA signatures using a key of at least 2048 bits.

So, to summarize, the input of the Merkle Hash Tree is a list of data entries or digital certificates. These data entries are hashed to form the leaves of the Merkle Tree. And, the output is a 32 byte Merkle Tree Hash.

Periodically, may be once in an hour, the log server appends all its newly submitted certificates to the log. Then, it creates a separate Merkle Tree Hash and combines it with the old Merkle Tree Hash. The new Merkle Tree Hash is then signed to create a new Signed Tree Head or STH. And, this process continues for all certificates ever submitted to the log.

The log also publishes a list of acceptable root certificates. A submitted certificate accompanies all the additional certificates required to verify the certificate chain up to required root certificate. When a TLS client receives a digital certificate along with SCT, it should verify the SCT with the signature input of SCT data and the certificate. They should also verify the signature with the log's public keys. If the log fails to provide a certificate with a valid SCT or presents multiple views of the Merkle Tree, that would indicate a security violation.

Monitor

Monitors are publicly run servers that periodically contact all the log servers to detect suspicious certificates. They watch the certificate logs and detect illegitimate or unauthorized certificates, unusual certificate extensions or certificate with strange permissions. They also make sure that the log certificates are visible to the log. Monitors periodically fetches entries from the log servers and monitors them.

To monitor the log certificates, the Monitors typically follow the steps below :

• They fetch the Signed Tree Head or STH from the log.
• They verify the STH signature.
• They fetch all the entries in the tree corresponding to the STH.
• They verify that the Merkle Tree constructed from the fetched entries produce the same hash as that of the STH.

Monitors are likely to be operated by CAs. They can also operate as standalone entities and provide services to the CAs and server operators. And, Monitors can be run by server operators like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc.

Auditor

An Auditor is a software component that fetches partial information from the log as input and verifies that the information is consistent. They can also verify that a particular certificate is present in the log.

An Auditor may be an integral component of a TLS client like browser. It may periodically send a batch of SCTs to its auditing component and verify the authenticity of the certificates. It asynchronously contact the logs and perform verification.

Basic operations of Certificate Transparency

So, to summarize, here is how Certificate Transparency operates :

• Though anyone can submit a certificate to the log, it is expected that a CA or server operator submits a digital certificate. It is also possible for a CA to submit a certificate before its issuance.
  
  After submitting the certificate to the log, the log returns an SCT or Signed Certificate Timestamp and an MMD or Maximum Merge Delay. MMD indicates the time by which the certificate will be added to the log, so that the certificate can be issued within reasonable timeframe.
• During TLS handshake, the TLS client receives the certificate along with the SCT and its signature chain.
• TLS clients can use the SCT and the log to verify that the certificate is not misissued.
• Please note that, the presence of SCT alone does not guarantee that the certificate is not misissued. The interested party must verify the SCT with the log.

Security

Misissued certificates that have not been publicly logged, will not have a valid SCT. So, the TLS client can detect its illegitimacy immediately.

TLS client can also verify the received SCT with the log. If there is any inconsistency, it will flag a security violation.

Interested party like domain owners can monitor the log and detect a misissue of a certificate. In fact, Certificate Transparency gives any interested party the opportunity to monitor and verify the integrity of the certificates.

The main advantage of Certificate Transparency is, it can detect a security violation within a few hours, instead of a few days, a few weeks or even a few months. And, this in turn speeds up the overall mitigation process in case of a misissue of a certificate.

Implementation of Certificate Transparency

Google launched Certificate Transparency log in March 2013. DigiCert is the first CA which has implemented Certificate Transparency. And now, Google Chrome requires Certificate Transparency for newly issued EV Certificates. ( What is EV Certificate ? )

The article was intended to give basic information on Certificate Transparency. Hope it solved the purpose.



Read More

What is Public Key Infrastructure and how can Blockchain be used there ?

What is EV Certificate ?

What are Smart Contracts ?

What is Deep Packet Inspection ?

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Deep Packet Inspection or DPI is a technology using which one can examine the data part of the network packets and search for protocol non-compliance, virus, spam, intrusions and other statistical information and decide whether the packet should be passed or dropped or should be routed to a different destination for further processing.

DPI is both a hardware and a software solution. A DPI device monitors the payload of each packet passing through it and detects protocols, application, inappropriate URL's, intrusion attempts and even malware present in the data packet. It is often used to enhance network security. And, Internet Service Providers often use it to decide on data usage, data limits, bandwidth, compliance with regulations, prioritization of traffic, load balancing or collection of statistical data from its subscribers.

Let's understand first how DPI works and how DPI technology has evolved.

OSI Model and Flow of Data Packets

To understand how DPI works and how this technology has evolved, we need to understand how a data packet flows through OSI protocol stack.

As per the OSI model, the communication system between the sender and receiver of a network packet is partitioned into seven layers :

1. The Application Layer – responsible for interacting with the application software
2. The Presentation Layer – responsible for compression, encryption and formatting of data being presented
3. The Session Layer – responsible for creating, managing and ending a session's communication
4. The Transport Layer – responsible for sequencing and delivery of data
5. The Network Layer – responsible for the addressing and routing of the network packets
6. The Data Link Layer – responsible for formatting the packet as per the medium of transmission of packets
7. The Physical Layer – responsible for defining the actual media and characteristics of the transmitted data

When we type a URL in the address bar of a browser, the data typically flows through the OSI protocol stack in the following way :

1. We type the URL in the address bar of the browser. The Application Layer interacts with the corresponding software, here the web browser. The browser makes an HTTP request to access the webpage from the web server. The request is passed through the next layer of the OSI model – the Presentation Layer.
2. The Presentation Layer is concerned with the actual format of data being presented. When the browser receives the data from the web server, the Presentation Layer presents it in a proper format like JPEG, MPEG, MOV, HTML etc. This layer can also encrypt and compress the data.
3. The next layer of the OSI model is the Session Layer. This layer is responsible for creating, managing and ending session's communication between the sender and receiver of the data. The Session Layer, the Presentation Layer and the Application Layer are mainly responsible for composing the payload of a packet.
4. The Transport Layer deals with the sequencing and delivery of the data. It segments the data into packets, sequence the packets, establishes a connection between the source and destination of the packets and then, sends those across through the next layer of the OSI model. Please note that, the Transport Layer is not concerned with the managing and ending of sessions. It only processes the connection between the sender and the receiver of the data.
5. The Network Layer is responsible for the addressing and routing of the network packets. It deals with how the network packets will travel from one part of the network to the other. However, it is not concerned with whether the packets received are error free. The Transport Layer takes care of that.
6. The Data Link Layer formats the packets as per the medium used for transmitting the packets – e.g. Wireless medium, ethernet connection etc.
7. The Physical Layer does not change the actual data of the packets. It defines the actual media and characteristics of the transmitted data. The Physical Layer, the Data Link Layer, the Network Layer and the Transport Layer are mainly responsible for composing the headers of network packets.

Lineage of Packet Inspection

Initially, Packet Inspection used to be used in traditional Firewalls. They would use this technology to monitor and filter packets for network security. Later, this technology gradually evolved to Deep Packet Inspection. Now, DPI is widely used in modern Next Generation Firewalls for enhancing network security, though the usage of DPI is not at all limited to that. It is widely used for content optimization, network and subscriber analysis and content regulation.

Shallow Packet Inspection

Shallow Packet Inspection is widely used in traditional Firewalls. It works mainly in the first three layers of the OSI model. This technology examines mainly the headers of the network packets to decide on whether the packet should be passed or should be dropped.

Shallow Packet Inspection mainly observes the source and destination IP addresses, the number of packets the message is broken into, the total number of hops in routing the packet and synchronization data for reassembling the packets etc to decide on whether the packet should be processed further.

Medium Packet Inspection

Medium Packet Inspection is widely used in application proxies. They examine the packet headers and limited amount of payload of the packet. And, that information is then matched against a pre-loaded parse list, which can be easily updated by the system administrators. A parse list allows specific packet types based on the data format types and associated location in the internet, rather than their IP addresses alone.

Medium Packet Inspection technology can look into the Presentation Layer of the packet's payload, which enables it to detect certain file formats. Using Medium Packet Inspection devices, administrators can thus prevent client computers from receiving flash files from Youtube, image files from social networking sites etc. Medium Packet Inspection can even prioritize some packets based on associated application commands and file formats of the data. It can dig into the packet to identify application protocol commands associated with it and then permit or deny it as per that information. (What is Web Application Firewall and how does it work ? )

Medium Packet Inspection was quite an advancement from Shallow Packet Inspection. But, the problem with this technology is it is quite poorly scalable, which limits its usefulness to a large extent.

Deep Packet Inspection

Medium Packet Inspection technology can look into the payload of the packets only up to a certain extent. So, Medium Packet Inspection devices have only limited application awareness. And, we needed something more.

Deep Packet Inspection technology evolved for that purpose. It looks into the payload of the packets and can identify the origin and content of each packet to take further decisions.

Deep Packet Inspection devices use expressions to define patterns of interest in network data streams. It can handle the packets based on specific patterns present in the payload of the packets.

So, a Deep Packet Inspection Device can look into payload of all the data packets passed through it in real time. So that would mean, a Deep Packet Inspection Device can look inside all the traffic from a specific IP address, pick out all the HTTP traffic, capture all the traffic that are meant for or coming from a specific mail server and reassemble those emails when a user types out.

Applications of Deep Packet Inspection technology

Deep Packet Inspection technology has several applications. Some major applications are listed below :

Network Security

It is widely used to Next Generation Firewalls ( What is Next Generation Firewalls ? ) to monitor and filter traffic per application basis instead of port basis, which enables it to troubleshoot network problems in a better way.

Anti-malware

A Deep Packet Inspection device can detect and filter a wide range of malware including trojans, viruses, spyware, adware and other malicious applications. It can do that by mainly taking a couple of approach mentioned below :

• URL Detection – Deep Packet Inspection devices can compare incoming and embedded URLs against a database of that of known malicious websites.
• Object Detection – Deep Packet Inspection devices can look into the traffic to search for potentially harmful executables and objects and then, analyze them to detect malware.
• Signature Detection – Deep Packet Inspection devices can look into the payload of data packets to search for the presence of signatures of known malware. Signature matching is done using a database of known signatures of malware and it usually takes help of security service providers to update the signature database.

URL Filtering

Deep Packet Inspection devices can look into the traffic to search for requested URLs and block URLs which are potentially harmful or inappropriate.

Protocols and Application Recognition

Deep Packet Inspection technology can look into the traffic to distinguish between email services including IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. It can identify protocols like HTTP, FTP, TCP etc. It can also look into the payload of data traffic to see the presence of certain file types like Flash, Youtube, Windows Media etc. It can identify a wide variety of tunneling, session, peer-to-peer, messaging and VoIP protocols so that it can route the data for further processing.

Network Management

Deep Packet Inspection technology can be used to maintain QoS (Quality of Service) for the end users. It can be used to differentiate between different types of traffic and to prioritize or throttle down those different types of traffic to maintain basic QoS.

Billing and Metering of Traffic

Deep Packet Inspection technology can be used by the Internet Service Providers to offer subscribers different levels of access like usage, data limits, bandwidth etc. It can also be used for the purpose of compliance of certain regulations of traffic, prioritization of traffic and load balancing.

Subscriber Analysis

Sometimes Deep Packet Inspection technology is used by the Internet Service Providers to gather statistical information of their subscribers. For example, the ISPs can gather information on web browsing habits of their subscribers and later, to use that to enhance marketing revenues.

Application Distribution and Load Balancing

Deep Packet Inspection technology can be used to look into the packet content and then, to redirect them to different destinations for the purpose of load balancing and fault tolerance.

Content Regulations

Deep Packet Inspection technology can be used to examine the traffic and to block content that are potentially harmful or unlawful.

Copyright Enforcement

Deep Packet Inspection technology can be used to look into the packet content and automatically detect and block unauthorized sharing of copyrighted contents including music or video files.

So, Deep Packet Inspection is quite an advancement of technology and it is completely upto us to decide on how we are going to use it for our own benefits. This article was intended to give basic infomation on Deep Packet Inspection. Hope it solved the purpose.




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