Reverse Fingerprinting
Christian A. Gorke, Frederik Armknecht

TL;DR
Reverse Fingerprinting (RFP) is a novel challenge-response method that accurately verifies software versions in cloud services, preventing false claims and enhancing security by not relying on version strings.
Contribution
The paper introduces RFP, a new provably secure technique for remote software identification that does not depend on version number APIs and can be outsourced to an auditor.
Findings
Most providers have the latest software versions installed.
RFP effectively prevents forgery of version information.
Theoretical framework and practical implementation are provided.
Abstract
Software connected to the Internet is an attractive target for attackers: as soon as a security flaw is known, services may be taken under attack. In contrast, software developers release updates to add further features and fix flaws in order to increase its security. Consequently, a user of the software wants to have the latest secure version running. However, if the software is provided as a service, e.g., as part of the cloud, the user relies on the service provider (SP) to perform such updates. But when asking for the software version, the user has to trust the output of SP or his software. Latter may be malformed, since updating software costs time and money, i.e., in comparison to changing a (false) version string. Now the question rises how a software service's client can provably determine the real software version of the running service at the SP, also known as Remote Software…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSecurity and Verification in Computing · Digital and Cyber Forensics · Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
