Cybersecurity (Security+) and P4 Programmable Switches

Monday June 19 – Friday June 23, 2023

Overview

This workshop will cover two virtual lab libraries available for NETLAB+ systems: 1) “Cybersecurity Tools and Applications,” and 2) “P4 Programmable Data Plane Switches.” The “Cybersecurity Tools and Applications” library covers the main concepts needed by learners who may want to be introduced to cybersecurity and/or want to obtain the Security+ certificate. Topics are reinforced with virtual labs that can be deployed in a NETLAB+ system. Examples of labs include Remote Access Trojan (RAT) using Reverse TCP Meterpreter, Social Engineering Attacks, Credentials Harvesting and Remote Access through Phishing Emails, SQL Injection Attack on a Web Application, Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack on a Web Application, Asymmetric Encryption (RSA, Digital Signatures, Diffie-Hellman), Configuring a Stateful Packet Filter using iptables, Intrusion Detection and Prevention using Suricata, and more.

The “P4 Programmable Switches” library covers how to write cybersecurity applications targeting programmable data plane switches, thus running at terabits per second (Tbps) rates. These switches have recently emerged and run applications at line rate. Moreover, applications can be reconfigured in the field without additional hardware upgrades, facilitating the deployment of new defenses against unforeseen attacks and vulnerabilities. Examples of labs include Detecting DDoS in the Data Plane, Parsing DNS Packets in P4 Switches and Blocking DNS attacks, Tracking Flows in Real Time, and more.