GenCyber 10 Security First Principles

The GenCyber 10 Security First Principles are a set of fundamental best practices and guidelines for cybersecurity. They were developed as part of the GenCyber program, which is a cybersecurity education initiative funded by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). These principles provide a foundation for good cybersecurity habits and practices.

Inspired by Press Release from NSA on GenCyber and Related Work

https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/2530813/gencyber-call-for-proposals/

MITRE ATT&CK https://attack.mitre.org/

Triage https://tria.ge/reports/public

10 Security First Principles

1. Domain Separation: Separating different network domains and resources based on their sensitivity and criticality.
2. Process Isolation: Running different processes in separate environments to prevent unauthorized access and data leakage.
3. Resource Encapsulation: Encapsulating resources and data to protect them from unauthorized access and modification.
4. Least Privilege: Granting users and processes only the minimum level of access and permissions necessary to perform their tasks.
5. Modularity: Designing systems and applications in a modular way to limit the impact of security breaches and make them easier to manage and update.
6. Layering: Implementing multiple layers of security controls to provide defense-in-depth and reduce the risk of a single point of failure.
7. Information Hiding: Protecting sensitive information by hiding it from unauthorized users and processes.
8. Simplicity: Keeping systems and security controls simple to reduce the attack surface and make them easier to understand and manage.
9. Minimization: Minimizing the collection, storage, and use of sensitive data to reduce the risk of data breaches and privacy violations.
10. Fault Tolerance: Designing systems to be resilient and able to continue operating even in the presence of failures or attacks.

Importance of Each Security First Principle

Each of the GenCyber 10 Security First Principles plays a crucial role in enhancing the overall security of a system. They address different aspects of security and provide a comprehensive approach to protecting against various threats and vulnerabilities.

• Domain Separation helps prevent unauthorized access and data leakage between different network domains.
• Process Isolation ensures that processes run in separate environments, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data leakage.
• Resource Encapsulation protects resources and data from unauthorized access and modification.
• Least Privilege minimizes the potential damage that can be caused by a compromised user or process.
• Modularity makes systems easier to manage and update, and limits the impact of security breaches.
• Layering provides multiple layers of defense, reducing the risk of a single point of failure.
• Information Hiding protects sensitive information from unauthorized access.
• Simplicity reduces the attack surface and makes systems easier to understand and manage.
• Minimization reduces the risk of data breaches and privacy violations by minimizing the collection, storage, and use of sensitive data.
• Fault Tolerance ensures that systems can continue operating even in the presence of failures or attacks.

Example Security Controls for Each Security First Principle

Here are some example security controls that can be implemented for each of the GenCyber 10 Security First Principles:

1. Domain Separation: Network segmentation, firewall rules, virtual private networks (VPNs).
2. Process Isolation: Sandboxing, containerization, virtual machines.
3. Resource Encapsulation: Access control lists (ACLs), encryption, secure protocols.
4. Least Privilege: Role-based access control (RBAC), principle of least privilege (PoLP), just-in-time (JIT) access.
5. Modularity: Microservices architecture, modular design patterns, secure coding practices.
6. Layering: Multi-factor authentication (MFA), defense-in-depth, security information and event management (SIEM).
7. Information Hiding: Data encryption, tokenization, secure key management.
8. Simplicity: Secure default configurations, minimized attack surface, clear and concise security policies.
9. Minimization: Data minimization, retention policies, secure deletion.
10. Fault Tolerance: Redundancy, failover mechanisms, incident response plans.

GenCyber 10 Security First Principles Python Script

The provided Python script demonstrates the implementation of the GenCyber 10 Security First Principles through a set of functions. Each function focuses on a specific principle and shows how it can be applied in code.

The script includes the following functions:

1. domain_separation: Demonstrates the separation of environments based on different domains.
2. process_isolation: Shows how to run a separate process in isolation using the subprocess module.
3. resource_encapsulation: Encapsulates sensitive data within a class and accesses it through defined methods.
4. least_privilege: Grants different privileges based on user roles.
5. modularity: Creates modular components for authentication and request processing.
6. layering: Applies multiple layers of security, including input validation, data sanitization, and data processing.
7. information_hiding: Hides sensitive information (password) within a class and hashes it before storing.
8. simplicity: Uses simple and clear naming conventions, along with straightforward and readable code.
9. minimization: Collects only necessary data, avoids storing sensitive data unnecessarily, and clears it after use.
10. fault_tolerance: Implements fault tolerance by handling database connection errors and using a local cache as a fallback.

The script also includes a main function that demonstrates the usage of each principle by calling the corresponding functions.

GenCyber 10 Security First Principles Table

Security First Principle	Description	Before	After
1. Domain Separation	Separating different network domains and resources based on their sensitivity and criticality.	No separation of environments.	Separate environments created for development and production domains.
2. Process Isolation	Running different processes in separate environments to prevent unauthorized access and data leakage.	No process isolation.	Separate process run in isolation using subprocess module.
3. Resource Encapsulation	Encapsulating resources and data to protect them from unauthorized access and modification.	Sensitive data not encapsulated.	Sensitive data encapsulated within a class and accessed through defined methods.
4. Least Privilege	Granting users and processes only the minimum level of access and permissions necessary to perform their tasks.	No differentiation of privileges.	Different privileges granted based on user role (admin or user).
5. Modularity	Designing systems and applications in a modular way to limit the impact of security breaches and make them easier to manage and update.	No modular components.	Modular components created for authentication and request processing.
6. Layering	Implementing multiple layers of security controls to provide defense-in-depth and reduce the risk of a single point of failure.	No layered security.	Multiple layers of security applied, including input validation, data sanitization, and data processing.
7. Information Hiding	Protecting sensitive information by hiding it from unauthorized users and processes.	Sensitive information not hidden.	Sensitive information (password) hidden within a class and hashed before storing.
8. Simplicity	Keeping systems and security controls simple to reduce the attack surface and make them easier to understand and manage.	No consideration for simplicity.	Simple and clear naming conventions used, along with straightforward and readable code.
9. Minimization	Minimizing the collection, storage, and use of sensitive data to reduce the risk of data breaches and privacy violations.	No minimization of data collection and storage.	Only necessary data collected, sensitive data not stored unnecessarily, and cleared after use.
10. Fault Tolerance	Designing systems to be resilient and able to continue operating even in the presence of failures or attacks.	No fault tolerance measures.	Fault tolerance implemented by handling database connection errors and using local cache as a fallback.

This table provides an overview of the 10 Security First Principles, their descriptions, and the before and after states as demonstrated by the functions in the provided Python script.

Related Resources

https://www.clark.center/c/gencyber

Disclaimer This repository is intended for educational and research purposes.

License

Copyright 2024 Eric Yocam

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.