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Threat Model

Comprehensive threat modeling for the Rust Security Platform using the STRIDE methodology.

Executive Summary

This document presents a comprehensive threat model for the Rust Security Platform using the STRIDE methodology. The model identifies potential threats across all system components and provides corresponding mitigation strategies. The platform implements defense-in-depth security controls to address these threats while maintaining high performance and usability.

STRIDE Threat Analysis

STRIDE is a threat modeling methodology that categorizes threats into six types:

  • Spoofing: Impersonating something or someone else
  • Tampering: Modifying data or code
  • Repudiation: Claiming to have not performed an action
  • Information Disclosure: Exposing information to unauthorized users
  • Denial of Service: Denying service to legitimate users
  • Elevation of Privilege: Acting with higher privileges than intended

System Components

1. Authentication Service

The core authentication service provides OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect functionality.

Spoofing Threats

T-001: User Impersonation via Stolen Credentials

  • Description: Attackers obtain user credentials through phishing, keylogging, or credential stuffing
  • Impact: High - Complete account compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforcement
    • Rate limiting on authentication attempts
    • Account lockout after failed attempts
    • Anomalous login detection and alerting
    • Secure password policies and enforcement

T-002: Client Impersonation

  • Description: Attackers obtain client credentials to impersonate legitimate applications
  • Impact: High - Service abuse and data access
  • Mitigation:
    • PKCE enforcement for public clients
    • Client certificate authentication for confidential clients
    • Regular credential rotation
    • Access logging and monitoring
    • Client authentication audit trails

T-003: Token Replay Attacks

  • Description: Attackers intercept and replay valid tokens to gain unauthorized access
  • Impact: High - Unauthorized resource access
  • Mitigation:
    • Token binding to client characteristics
    • Short token lifetimes
    • One-time use tokens where appropriate
    • Replay detection with nonce tracking
    • TLS encryption for all communications

Tampering Threats

T-004: Token Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify JWT tokens to change claims or extend expiration
  • Impact: High - Unauthorized access with elevated privileges
  • Mitigation:
    • Strong cryptographic signatures (RS256)
    • Token validation on all protected endpoints
    • Regular key rotation
    • Secure key storage and management
    • Token introspection for critical operations

T-005: Request Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify authentication requests to bypass security controls
  • Impact: Medium - Bypass of security controls
  • Mitigation:
    • Request signing for critical operations
    • Input validation and sanitization
    • TLS encryption for all communications
    • HTTP security headers
    • Request size and format validation

T-006: Configuration Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify system configuration to weaken security controls
  • Impact: Critical - Complete system compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Configuration file integrity checking
    • Secure configuration management
    • Role-based access control for configuration changes
    • Configuration change audit logging
    • Immutable infrastructure where possible

Repudiation Threats

T-007: Authentication Repudiation

  • Description: Users deny performing authentication actions
  • Impact: Medium - Non-repudiation challenges
  • Mitigation:
    • Comprehensive audit logging
    • Digital signatures for critical operations
    • Timestamped logs with secure time sources
    • Immutable log storage
    • Regular log integrity verification

T-008: Authorization Repudiation

  • Description: Users or systems deny performing authorized actions
  • Impact: Medium - Accountability challenges
  • Mitigation:
    • Detailed authorization logging
    • Context-aware authorization decisions
    • Digital signatures for authorization decisions
    • Comprehensive audit trails
    • Non-repudiation controls for critical operations

Information Disclosure Threats

T-009: Credential Disclosure

  • Description: User or client credentials are exposed through various means
  • Impact: High - Account and service compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Secure credential storage (Argon2 hashing)
    • TLS encryption for all communications
    • Credential rotation and expiration
    • Secure client registration processes
    • Regular security assessments

T-010: Token Disclosure

  • Description: Access tokens are exposed in logs, URLs, or network traffic
  • Impact: High - Unauthorized resource access
  • Mitigation:
    • Secure token storage and transmission
    • Token masking in logs
    • Short token lifetimes
    • Token binding to client characteristics
    • Regular token revocation for suspicious activity

T-011: User Data Disclosure

  • Description: Personal or sensitive user data is exposed
  • Impact: High - Privacy violations and compliance issues
  • Mitigation:
    • Data encryption at rest and in transit
    • Data minimization principles
    • Access controls and audit logging
    • Data masking and tokenization
    • Regular privacy impact assessments

Denial of Service Threats

T-012: Authentication Service Overload

  • Description: Attackers overwhelm authentication service with requests
  • Impact: High - Service unavailability
  • Mitigation:
    • Rate limiting at multiple levels
    • DDoS protection services
    • Auto-scaling capabilities
    • Request queuing and prioritization
    • Circuit breaker patterns

T-013: Resource Exhaustion

  • Description: Attackers consume system resources to cause service degradation
  • Impact: High - Performance degradation or outage
  • Mitigation:
    • Resource quotas and limits
    • Connection pooling and management
    • Memory and CPU monitoring
    • Graceful degradation mechanisms
    • Resource usage alerting

T-014: Database Overload

  • Description: Database becomes overwhelmed with authentication queries
  • Impact: High - Authentication service failure
  • Mitigation:
    • Database connection pooling
    • Query optimization and indexing
    • Caching strategies
    • Database read replicas
    • Database-specific rate limiting

Elevation of Privilege Threats

T-015: Privilege Escalation via Vulnerabilities

  • Description: Attackers exploit vulnerabilities to gain higher privileges
  • Impact: Critical - Complete system compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Regular security updates and patches
    • Vulnerability scanning and assessment
    • Principle of least privilege
    • Secure coding practices
    • Regular penetration testing

T-016: Horizontal Privilege Escalation

  • Description: Users access data or functionality of other users at same privilege level
  • Impact: High - Unauthorized data access
  • Mitigation:
    • Strong access controls and validation
    • Session management and ownership checks
    • Comprehensive authorization policies
    • Regular access reviews
    • User behavior analytics

2. Policy Service

The policy service provides fine-grained authorization decisions.

Spoofing Threats

T-017: Policy Decision Spoofing

  • Description: Attackers provide fake policy decisions to bypass authorization
  • Impact: High - Unauthorized resource access
  • Mitigation:
    • Secure policy decision communication
    • Policy decision validation and signing
    • Mutual authentication between services
    • Regular policy decision verification
    • Immutable policy decision logging

Tampering Threats

T-018: Policy Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify authorization policies to grant unauthorized access
  • Impact: Critical - Complete authorization bypass
  • Mitigation:
    • Policy integrity verification
    • Secure policy storage and transmission
    • Policy change audit logging
    • Role-based policy management
    • Regular policy validation

Information Disclosure Threats

T-019: Policy Disclosure

  • Description: Authorization policies are exposed to unauthorized parties
  • Impact: Medium - Information about access controls
  • Mitigation:
    • Secure policy storage
    • Access controls for policy management
    • Policy obfuscation where appropriate
    • Regular security assessments
    • Policy change monitoring

Denial of Service Threats

T-020: Policy Service Overload

  • Description: Policy service becomes overwhelmed with authorization requests
  • Impact: High - Authorization failures
  • Mitigation:
    • Rate limiting for policy requests
    • Policy decision caching
    • Auto-scaling capabilities
    • Graceful degradation to default policies
    • Circuit breaker patterns

3. Data Storage

Storage systems for user data, tokens, and configuration.

Spoofing Threats

T-021: Data Source Spoofing

  • Description: Attackers provide fake data to the system
  • Impact: High - Data integrity compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Data source authentication
    • Data integrity verification
    • Secure data transmission
    • Regular data validation
    • Immutable data storage where possible

Tampering Threats

T-022: Data Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify stored data to change system behavior
  • Impact: Critical - Complete system compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Data encryption at rest
    • Data integrity checks
    • Secure backup and recovery
    • Regular data validation
    • Immutable audit logs

Information Disclosure Threats

T-023: Data Exposure

  • Description: Sensitive data is exposed through various means
  • Impact: High - Privacy violations and compliance issues
  • Mitigation:
    • Data encryption at rest and in transit
    • Access controls and audit logging
    • Data minimization
    • Regular security assessments
    • Data loss prevention controls

4. Network Infrastructure

Network components including load balancers, firewalls, and proxies.

Spoofing Threats

T-024: Network Spoofing

  • Description: Attackers spoof network addresses or identities
  • Impact: High - Network-level access compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • Network segmentation
    • IP address validation
    • Mutual TLS authentication
    • Network access controls
    • Regular network security assessments

Tampering Threats

T-025: Network Traffic Tampering

  • Description: Attackers modify network traffic in transit
  • Impact: High - Data integrity and confidentiality compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • TLS encryption for all communications
    • Message authentication codes
    • Network traffic monitoring
    • Secure network protocols
    • Regular penetration testing

Information Disclosure Threats

T-026: Network Traffic Interception

  • Description: Attackers intercept network traffic to gain sensitive information
  • Impact: High - Data exposure and credential compromise
  • Mitigation:
    • End-to-end encryption
    • Perfect forward secrecy
    • Network traffic monitoring
    • Secure network design
    • Regular security assessments

Denial of Service Threats

T-027: Network Overload

  • Description: Network infrastructure becomes overwhelmed with traffic
  • Impact: High - Service unavailability
  • Mitigation:
    • DDoS protection services
    • Traffic shaping and rate limiting
    • Network capacity planning
    • Auto-scaling network components
    • Incident response procedures

Attack Trees

Authentication Service Compromise

Authentication Service Compromise
├── Credential Theft
│   ├── Phishing
│   ├── Keylogging
│   ├── Credential Stuffing
│   └── Social Engineering
├── Token Abuse
│   ├── Token Theft
│   ├── Token Replay
│   └── Token Manipulation
├── Service Exploitation
│   ├── Buffer Overflow
│   ├── Injection Attacks
│   └── Logic Flaws
└── Infrastructure Attack
    ├── Network Interception
    ├── System Compromise
    └── Configuration Weakness

Authorization Bypass

Authorization Bypass
├── Policy Manipulation
│   ├── Policy Tampering
│   ├── Policy Injection
│   └── Policy Logic Flaws
├── Access Control Bypass
│   ├── IDOR (Insecure Direct Object References)
│   ├── Privilege Escalation
│   └── Session Hijacking
├── Decision Spoofing
│   ├── Fake Policy Decisions
│   └── Man-in-the-Middle
└── System Compromise
    ├── Service Exploitation
    ├── Data Tampering
    └── Configuration Changes

Risk Assessment

Risk Matrix

Likelihood Low Impact Medium Impact High Impact Critical Impact
High Low Medium High Critical
Medium Low Low Medium High
Low Low Low Low Medium

Top 10 Critical Risks

  1. Authentication Service Compromise (Critical)
  2. Authorization Policy Bypass (Critical)
  3. Credential Theft and Abuse (High)
  4. Token Manipulation and Replay (High)
  5. System Configuration Tampering (High)
  6. Denial of Service Attacks (High)
  7. Data Exposure and Privacy Violations (High)
  8. Privilege Escalation (High)
  9. Network Interception (Medium)
  10. Vulnerability Exploitation (Medium)

Mitigation Strategies

Layered Security Controls

The platform implements multiple layers of security controls:

  1. Perimeter Security: WAF, load balancers, and DDoS protection
  2. Network Security: TLS encryption, network segmentation, and firewalls
  3. Application Security: Authentication, authorization, and input validation
  4. Data Security: Encryption, key management, and access controls
  5. Monitoring: Real-time threat detection and incident response

Defense in Depth

Multiple security controls protect against each threat:

  • Authentication: MFA, rate limiting, and anomalous login detection
  • Authorization: RBAC, ABAC, and policy validation
  • Data Protection: Encryption, masking, and access controls
  • Network Security: TLS, network segmentation, and monitoring
  • Monitoring: Real-time detection, logging, and incident response

Continuous Improvement

Regular security improvements through:

  • Threat Intelligence: Integration with external threat feeds
  • Security Testing: Automated and manual security assessments
  • Vulnerability Management: Regular scanning and remediation
  • Incident Response: Regular testing and improvement of procedures
  • Security Training: Ongoing education for development and operations teams

Next Steps

To address identified threats:

  1. Implement Missing Controls: Deploy any security controls not yet implemented
  2. Regular Assessments: Conduct periodic threat modeling updates
  3. Security Testing: Perform regular security assessments and penetration testing
  4. Monitoring Enhancement: Improve threat detection and response capabilities
  5. Training and Awareness: Ensure teams understand security requirements

For detailed implementation of security controls, see the Security Best Practices and Security Implementation Guide.