Zero Trust for IoT/Edge – Mitigating OWASP Top 10 Threats

The proliferation of IoT/Edge devices has introduced unprecedented security challenges, particularly in critical sectors like retail point-of-sale (POS) systems. With an estimated 75 billion IoT devices expected by 2025, the attack surface for cybercriminals is expanding rapidly. This blog examines how AccuKnox’s Zero Trust solution effectively counters the OWASP IoT Top 10 threats, providing a robust security framework for IoT/Edge environments.

Top Attack Vectors in IoT/Edge Security Landscape

1. Remote Code Execution (RCE)
   • Exploitable vulnerabilities in cash registers and other IoT devices
   • Ability to execute arbitrary commands, often chained with “;” separators
2. Malware Infiltration
   • Known malware (e.g., “Tsunami”, Mirai Botnet variants)
   • Unknown malware with seemingly legitimate signatures
   • Example: Malware communicating with suspicious domains (e.g., pokdeng.com)
3. Multi-Stage Exploits
   A sophisticated attack pattern observed in recent IoT breaches:
   1. Initial connection via exposed web server (commonly on Port 8080)
   2. Secondary connection to a new, apparently “legitimate” domain
   3. Execution of a new, seemingly “legitimate” process (e.g., hacked.sh)
4. Tunnels Server Exploitation
   • Persistent SSH connections to all devices in a network
   • Potential for widespread access across global device networks
   • Exploitation of shared certificates and super user credentials

AccuKnox Zero Trust Approach

• → Lightweight agents that use readily available kernel primitives for protection
• → Aggregation/Vectorization of forensics to reduce bandwidth requirement
• → Ability to work in offline mode and sync when connection is available
• → Support for all deployment modes

AccuKnox’s solution is built on four core security principles:

Zero Trust both from a network and application perspective

Implementation of Zero Trust from the network and application sides involves strict access controls. At the network level, only known entities can connect to the edge device; all others are denied. At the application level, only verified processes operate within the container, and all others are blocked. Further, sensitive data is only accessible by known processes to ensure that no unauthorized access occurs.

Securing IBM Open Horizon

There are several key aspects to securing IBM Open Horizon. It runs in Systemd mode for reliable service management in deployment mode. It provides for the observability of communication from the agent node to the management hub and vice versa, as well as interactions between the agent edge node and the container applications that involve internal processes within container applications. It discovers, enforces, and provides the least permissive security policies on the workloads runningM on a host to protect it. Guided by its Discovery Engine, it applies such predefined or dynamically generated least permissive security policies for effective security compliance.

Addressing OWASP IoT Top 10 Threats with AccuKnox

1. Weak, Guessable, or Hard Coded Passwords (I1)

AccuKnox Solution: Process-based access control to credential files
Impact: Prevents unauthorized credential file modifications, effectively mitigating brute force and credential stuffing attacks.
Policy example:

2. Insecure Network Services (I2)

AccuKnox Approach: Network access restricted to whitelisted processes
Implementation: Host-based process-level network control
Impact: Reduces unauthorized network connections by 99.9%, significantly limiting the attack surface exposed to potential threats.
Policy snippet:

3. Insecure Ecosystem Interfaces (I3)

Solution: API protection through process whitelisting and network control
Benefit: Prevents unauthorized access to backend systems, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized control.
Policy Snippet:

4. Lack of Secure Update Mechanism (I4)

AccuKnox Feature: File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) and Protection
Impact: Prevents unauthorized modifications to system binaries, effectively blocking attempts to inject malicious updates or backdoors.
Policy example:

5. Use of Insecure or Outdated Components (I5)

Mitigation: Strict process whitelisting prevents execution of unauthorized binaries
Additional layer: File system write protection for system directories
Implementation:

• Whitelisted binary execution paths
• Runtime write protection for whitelisted paths

Impact: Reduces the risk of exploiting outdated components as only authorized and updated binaries can execute.

6. Insufficient Privacy Protection (I6)

AccuKnox Approach: Granular access control to sensitive data assets
Impact: Ensures that sensitive data is accessible only to authorized processes, reducing the risk of data breaches.
Example policy:

7. Insecure Data Transfer and Storage (I7)

Solution: Protected network access combined with file system control
Implementation:

• Process-level network access control
• Encryption enforcement for data in transit and at rest

Ensuring TLS for all service endpoints is crucial for secure communication. The k8tls tool assesses server port security by detecting TLS and certificate configurations in Kubernetes clusters, helping to understand the security risk posture of exposed service endpoints. Without TLS, an attacker could perform reconnaissance to exploit unencrypted protocols, leading to potential Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks. TLS ensures that all traffic is encrypted, reducing the risk of such attacks and maintaining data integrity and confidentiality. This practice is essential for safeguarding against MITM attacks and ensuring secure data flow.

Impact: Reduced risk of data interception and unauthorized access.

8. Lack of Device Management (I8)

AccuKnox Integration: Seamless operation with IBM Edge Application Manager
Features:

• Centralized management system for thousands of devices/nodes
• Real-time security policy updates
• Comprehensive audit logging and alerting

Impact: Improves device management efficiency while maintaining robust security across the entire IoT fleet.

9. Insecure Default Settings (I9)

Approach: Custom protection policies based on threat modeling
Implementation: Least privilege principle enforced from deployment
Impact: Reduces the attack surface from default settings significantly improving the security posture of newly deployed devices.
Policy example:

10. Lack of Physical Hardening (I10)

Mitigation: Strict file and process access control
Additional measure: Prevention of execution from world-writable directories
Implementation:

• File system access control
• Process execution control
• Monitoring of physical access attempts

Impact: Reduces the risk of physical tampering and unauthorized access, even in scenarios where physical access to the device is obtained.

AccuKnox Performance Metrics

AccuKnox’s solution not only provides robust security but also maintains high performance, crucial for IoT/Edge environments:

These metrics demonstrate AccuKnox’s ability to provide comprehensive security with minimal resource overhead, a critical factor for resource-constrained IoT devices.

Cryptojacking and Malware Protection

AccuKnox’s multi-layered approach can prevent cryptojacking attempt:

1. Execution prevention from world-writable folders (/tmp/): Blocking exec attempts
2. Detection of known miners (e.g., xmrig, dero): Preventing installations
3. Anomaly detection: Identifying previously unknown mining scripts

Unique Differentiators

1. Preemptive Mitigation
   • Stops threats before execution, unlike traditional reactive solutions
   • Reduces response time to zero, compared to industry average of 197 minutes (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021)
2. Host-based Microsegmentation
   • Granular control at the process level
   • Reduces attack surface by up to 99% compared to network-level segmentation alone
3. No TOCTOU (Time of Check to Time of Use) Issues
   • Inline security checks prevent race conditions
   • Eliminates a common vulnerability exploited in IoT attacks 
4. Open Source Core
   • CNCF-backed engine ensures transparency and community-driven improvements
   • Reduces total cost of ownership compared to proprietary solutions
     
5. Integration Capabilities
   • Seamless operation with IBM Edge Application Manager
   • Reduces deployment and management overhead in multi-vendor environments

Future-proofing IoT/Edge Security

AccuKnox’s approach not only addresses current threats but is designed to adapt to emerging challenges:

1. AI/ML Integration: Future iterations will incorporate machine learning for enhanced anomaly detection, potentially improving threat detection rates.
2. Quantum-resistant Cryptography: Research is underway to integrate post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, ensuring long-term data protection.
3. 5G and Edge Computing: AccuKnox is developing specialized policies for 5G-enabled IoT devices, anticipating a 200% increase in edge computing deployments by 2025.

Key Takeaways

• The Zero Trust solution for IoT/Edge, from AccuKnox, addresses the OWASP IoT Top 10 threats at scale comprehensively with the least permissive application enforcement, process-level micro segmentation, and preemptive threat mitigation, with seamless integration into existing management tools.
• Focusing on these core principles and using data-driven policies, AccuKnox can provide an enterprise-grade, scalable security solution that turns out to be more effective and efficient than traditional security solutions. With its prowess to adapt and evolve with the changing IoT landscape, AccuKnox is well-geared to protect the emerging Next-Generation IoT, thereby ensuring the realization of the IoT promise without any security compromise. We address the OWASP IoT Top 10 threats through specifically targeted policies.
• It reduces the attack surface compared to traditional security approaches; improves all performance metrics by as much as 66% resource usage reduction; it has real-world effectiveness in large-scale deployments. Enables organizations to meet future challenges in IoT security and regulatory requirements.