ATM Security Page

ATM Security Page This page provides links and references to information about securing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. It has nothing to do with Automated Telling Machines, Adobe Type Manager, or other types of "ATM".

If you know of any sources of ATM security information or products which are not included in this page, then please email them to the maintainer of this page.

In ATM, as with all networks, there is the question of which security services (e.g. confidentiality, integrity, availability) should be provided on a link-oriented basis and which should be provided on an end-to-end basis. Consequently, security services (other than availability) that are not provided by a network can often be provided, instead, by end-systems.

While ATM is regarded as a panacea by some, there are critics.

Players

The ATM Forum has a security working group which "Develops requirements and information flow specifications for ATM security, for all aspects of security for ATM applied to user information, signaling information and management information." (See press reports.) Unfortunately for many people, most ATM Forum contributions are only available to members of the ATM Forum. Exceptions include some contributions from IBM.

IBM's Zurich research labs have a group studying security services in high-speed networks which has made some contributions to the ATM Forum.

MCNC's Advanced Networking Technologies group have an "Enigma2" project examining key agile cryptography for ATM. DARPA have another report on this project.

SRI are also studying secure ATM networks.

Bellcore are working on an OC-192c ATM encryptor.

Other players are producing products...

Products

Security peripherals

Secant Network Technologies offer a Key Agile Encryptor system.

GTE/Cylink offer the InfoGuard 100 (see press release), and GTE also offers the (KG-75) FASTLANE ATM Encrytor.

ATM systems with security features

Network Systems offers an ATM firewall.

Publications

Widely available

J. Kimmins and B. Booth: "Security for ATM networks"; Computer Security Journal; XII(1):21-29; 1996

D. Stevenson et al: "Secure Communications In ATM Networks"; Communications of the ACM; vol. 38, no. 2; Feb. 1995; pp. 45-52

T. Mattoom: "ASSURACON: The ASSURed Atm CONnection"; Proc. Milcom '95; pp. 197-201

C. Wilcox: "ATDNet Research at the National Security Agency"; IEEE Network; Jul/Aug 1996; pp. 42-47

R. Taylor and G. Findlow: "Asynchronous Transfer Mode: Security Issues"; Proc. Australian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference; 5-7 Dec. 1995; pp. 161-166 (Text available in Microsoft Word format)

R. Deng et al: "Securing Data Transfer in Asynchronous Transfer Mode Networks"; Proceedings of GLOBECOM'95, Singapore, November 13-17, 1995, pp. 1198-1202

Available on the Internet

Chuang: "Securing ATM Networks", Cambridge University ATM Document Collection 4 (The Green Book); 1995

M. Laurent: "Securite ATM analyse des flux mene sur quatre architectures de reseaux" NB (in French)

A. Alles: "ATM Internetworking" (section 4.5.1 discusses ATM firewalls)

Unchecked

Stevenson et al: "Design of a Key Agile Cryptographic System for OC-12c Rate ATM"; Proceedings of Symposium on Network and Distributed System Security, pp. 17-30, Internet Society 1995 (cited in Stevenson et al)

Capell: "ATM Encryption Testing"; slides presented at 11th ACSAC 1995

Hughes: "ATM Firewall"; slides presented at 11th ACSAC 1995

W. Semancik et al: "Cell level encryption for ATM networks and some results from initial testing"; Proc. DoD Fiber Optics '94 Conf.; Armed Forces Commun. and Elect. Assn.; Mar 22-24; 1994 (cited in Wilcox)

L. Gong and N. Shacham: "Security in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks"; Project Final report for Sprint; SRI International; Computer Science Laboratory; Dec. 1994 (cited in Deng et al)

ATM Forum Contributions

Most ATM Forum contributions are available only to members of the ATM Forum. Below are some exceptions. References are prefaced with the ATM Forum contribution number.

95-0579 Peyravian and Van Herreweghen: "ATM Security Scope and Requirements"

95-0580 Peyravian et al: "A Framework for Authenticated Key Distribution in ATM Networks"

95-0964 Peyravian et al: "A Certification Infrastructure"

Work in progress

A MSc thesis and a university class project.

Bell Atlantic are working on an ATM/SONET testbed which emphasises security.

Related sites

The Cell Relay Retreat includes a searchable archive of the comp.dcom.cell-relay news group which covers ATM, and occasionally ATM security.