1. Collaborative vs. Mobile Agents
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Collaborative vs. Mobile Agents
A security overview on both infrastructure and ad-hoc networks
Carlisle House
18 November 2018

2. Overview General agent security risks
Collaborative agents and their security risks
Mobile agents and their security risks
Security comparison
Agent behavior in infrastructure and ad-hoc networks
Distributed downloading
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3. General Agent Security Risks
Four main security situations
Protecting host from agent
Protecting agent from other agents
Protecting agents from machines
Protecting a group of machines from an agent
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4. General Agent Security Risks
Authentication
Communication
Code tampering / modification
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5. Collaborative Agents Emphasize autonomy and cooperation
Solve large problems with static distributed computing
Allow for interconnecting and interoperation of multiple existing legacy systems.
Inter-agent coordination still ongoing issue
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6. Security-based collaborative agent systems
Agent mechanisms distributed throughout network nodes
Usually have centralized agent server
Examples:
Cherubim
Seraphim
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7. Collaborative agent security issues
Authentication upon network entry
Encryption for communication system
Transfer of rule set and agent code
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8. Mobile Agents
Computational software processes capable of roaming networks
Also autonomous and cooperative
Reduced communication costs and limited resources
Easier coordination
Can be implemented for dynamic distributed computing
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9. Security-based mobile agent systems
Roaming agents assessing host computer security as well as network health
Can have multiple mobile agents within network
Examples:
MAST
Aglets
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10. 18 November 2018

11. Mobile agent security issues
Authentication
How often?
Associate and Disassociate issues
Code integrity
Communication issues
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12. Comparison between systems
Collaborative
Communication issues mainly deal with network protection and integrity
Authentication only needed beginning of session
Mobile
Communication issues deal with code space and OS access
Authentication needed more often
Agents more exposed to a variety of threats
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13. Agent system behavior
Looked at infrastructure and ad-hoc wireless network topologies
Network simulation implemented using Java
Observe system behavior on both systems
Performance
Security
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14. Collaborative System
64 node systems with centralized server components
Modified Cherubim system
Components tested
Node scanning mechanism (viral and patch)
Firewall
Communication transfer
Dynamic rule sets and patches
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15. Mobile system 64 node roaming network system with three agents
Firewall
Viral scanning
Patch management
Modified Aglets system
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16. Observed infrastructure behavior
Collaborative
Less network strain
System more “up to date”
More tolerant to heterogeneous network system
Mobile
Higher network utilization
System requires more time for security purposes
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17. Ad-Hoc Observation Collaborative Mobile Requires more complexity
Central-based server system somewhat detrimental
Mobile
Better performance on ad-hoc network
No need for complete server system
Same amount of network utilization
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18. Distributed downloading
Attempt to improve efficiency
Similar to p2p systems
Modify both mobile and collaborative viral definition and patch delivery systems
Hope to decrease set up time
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19. Distributed outcome Collaborative Mobile Less complex to implement
Performance increase
Infrastrucure – 10%
Ad-hoc – 3%
Setup time
Overall setup time decreased by 12%
Mobile
More complex
Performance increase
Infrastructure – 5%
Ad-hoc – 4%
Setup time
Overall setup time decreased by 3%
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20. Conclusions
Collaborative agents have less security risks when compared to mobile agents
Collaborative agents better suited for use with infrastructure networks
Collaborative agents utilized distributed downloading better than mobile agents
Mobile agents perfect for ad-hoc networks
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21. References
Abdalla, Michel. Cirne, Walfredo. Franklin, Leslie. Tabbara, Abdallah. “Security Issues in Agent Based Computing.” In 15th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Networks, Sao Carlos, Brazil, May 1997.
Domel, Peter. “Mobile Telescript Agents and the Web.” Proceedings of the 4th Annual Tcl/Tk Workshop, 1996.
Gray, Robert. Kotz, David. Nog, Saurab. Rus, Daniela. Cybenko, George. “Mobile Agents for Mobile Computing.” In Technical Report PCS-TR96-285, May 1996.
Gray, D. Kotz, G. Cybenko, and D. Rus, "D'Agents: Security in a Multiple Language Mobile-agent System ", Mobile Agents and Security, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, No. 1419, pages , Springer-Verlag, 1998.
Jansen, Wayne. “Countermeasures for Mobile Agent Security.” Computer Communications, Special Issue on Advances in Research and Application and Network Security, Summer 2000.
Kotz, David. Gray, Robert. Rue, Daniela.  “Future Directions for Mobile Agent Research.” DS Online, 2002.
Kramer, Kwindla Hultman. Minar, Nelson. Maes, Pattie. “Tutorial: Mobile Software Agents for Dynamic Routing.” Mobile Computing and Communications Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp 12-16, 1999.
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22. References
Liu, Zhaoyu. Prasad Naldurg, Seung Yi. Tin Qian. Roy H. Campbell. M. Dennis Mickunas. “An Agent Based Architecture for Supporting Application Level Security.” In the DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition, Hilton Head Island, SC, January 2000.
Nwana, Hyacinth. “Software Agents: An Overview.” Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol. II, No 3, pp 1-40, September 1996.
Pashalidis, A. Fleury, M “Secure Network Management within an Open-source Mobile Agent Framework.” JNSM: Vol. 12, No. 1, 2004.
Rus, Daniela. Gray, Robert. Kotz, David. “Transportable Information Agents.” Technical Report: PCSTR , Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, 1996.
Sultanik E, Artz D, Anderson G, Kam M, Regli W, Peysakhov M, Sevy J, Belov N, Morizio N, and Mroczkowski A. "Secure mobile agents on ad hoc wireless networks." in The 15th Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, 2003.
Tripathi, Anand. Koka, Muralidhar. Karanth, Sandeep. Osipkov, Ivan. Talkad, Harsha. Ahmed, Tanvir. Johnson, David. Dier, Scott. “Robustness and Security in a Mobile-Agent based Network Monitoring System.” In Technical Report TR , January 2004.
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23. Questions
Thanks for listening.
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