Cost-Based Configuration Parameter Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge is to prevent unauthorized access to computing devices from malicious executable content, which can modify security-critical parameters without user awareness, leaving the device vulnerable to external exploitation.
Innovation Solution
A system that assigns credit costs to system configuration parameters, calculates a parameter modification cost, and presents a challenge to the user when this cost exceeds a threshold, ensuring that only human responses allow changes to protected parameters or processes, with incorrect or missing responses reversing these changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a challenge is presented to the user every time a protected parameter is changed, then security is improved by detecting unauthorized modifications, but user experience deteriorates due to frequent interruptions during legitimate software installation
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of challenge presentation frequency from every modification to a threshold-based model. By introducing a credit threshold parameter, the system allows multiple parameter changes without interrupting the user, unless the cumulative credit cost exceeds the threshold, thus balancing security with user experience.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by assigning credit costs to parameters before changes occur and accumulating these costs. This allows the system to prepare and evaluate the total impact of multiple changes before presenting a challenge, rather than interrupting at each individual change.
2Reliability
If challenges are presented frequently to prevent malicious modifications, then security against automated processes is improved, but productivity decreases due to repeated user interactions required during software installation
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of challenge presentation from immediate to threshold-based. By accumulating credit costs and only presenting challenges when the threshold is exceeded, the system maintains security while allowing continuous software installation operations without frequent interruptions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system ensures continuity of useful action by allowing multiple parameter changes to occur continuously without interruption, as long as the cumulative credit cost remains below the threshold. This enables smooth software installation while still maintaining security through periodic challenge presentation.
3Reliability
If all parameter changes are monitored and challenged, then detection of malicious executable content is improved, but device complexity increases due to comprehensive monitoring overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the monitoring approach from tracking every individual parameter change to accumulating credit costs based on predefined credit assignments. This simplifies the monitoring mechanism while maintaining effective detection capability through the threshold-based challenge presentation model.
Data Source
AI summary
A cost is determined for events related to the modification of system configuration parameter values in a computing device. If the cost meets or exceeds a threshold, a challenge is presented to a user of the computing device. If the user does not answer the challenge correctly, the system configuration parameters are reverted to their original values.