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NIXE™ proofs networks for security gaps

March 06, 2002

Computer networks are becoming ever larger and more tightly meshed. Gaps in security are more difficult to locate. A flexible, non-intrusive - and award-winning - evaluation program for UNIX platforms will be exhibited at the Fraunhofer stand at CeBIT 2002.

Networking computers are standard equipment for most enterprises today. But these nervous systems constantly live in danger of being attacked. "Such damages cause an enormous loss of money and manpower every day", states Dr. Reinhard Schwarz of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE. "Most of these attacks are not even discovered. So the only way to protect networks in a reliable, complete and cost-saving way is to periodically perform security checks." Here comes the software NIXE™, that Schwarz and his team developed. Like the mythical nixes or mermaids it works highly discreet: The acronym for "Non-Intrusive Unix Evaluation" means just that: The program can be installed on Unix platforms, run and removed after use, without leaving traces. Similar to a virus-scanner it performs its duty inconspicuously. As Schwarz explains, "NIXE allows us to perform security checks of network components without even the slightest disruption of data flow or writing to system files. As a consequence vendors` security guarantees are not jeopardized in any way."

Other available programs of that kind mostly cannot be adapted to a particular configuration or are simply incompatible with the system that the user wants to evaluate. The design of NIXE software does not fall prey to such shortcomings. As open-source software, storable on a single diskette, this evaluation tool offers trained users total transparency of its programming and what it will do. The standard program code can be quickly and easily extended for additional tests to meet the requirements of a specific network environment. Fine-tuning can be done with a familiar, trustworthy reference system. Moreover, NIXE is familiar with the Unix dialects of all major vendors.

NIXE covers a wide spectrum of security aspects like: valid user identifications, user-group access, software packages, patches (software extensions and updates), data files, directories, services like e-mail or Telnet, and ports (interfaces). Finally, NIXE provides an evaluation protocol with a range of responses from a positive "green light" ("valid feature") through five gradual alarm stages down to "serious deficiency", depending on the pre-adjusted precision. "NIXE is the result of many years of cooperation with industry partners," comments Dr. Schwarz on the program`s versatility and practicality. Last fall, he and his team were awarded the Rheinland-Pfalz Innovation Prize for their development of this new software. They will demonstrate it on CeBIT 2002 (Hall 11, Stand A 10/14).

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft