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Gweneth Smith's Notebook
Attended the first group meeting virtually and learned some basics of Cyber Physical Systems as well as the various tasks of each sub team. Will complete the welcome survey and sub team survey.
First in person meeting and recapped the work and mission that has been completed thusfar. Gained more detail about GridLab-D, ROS, etc, and how HELICS facilitates communication between them. Briefly discussed the lack of encryption and possibility of man in the middle attacks. Scheduled time for a weekly ROS/HELICS subteam meeting outside of the thursday window. Started discussing ideas and the kickoff presentation.
Had our first sub-team meeting and discussed various sub-teams within the ROS/HELICS team. I joined the security sub-team, and we discussed the various security concerns and test we want to address, especially for ROS. Mentioned primary concerns with man in the middle attacks and potential attackers sneaking in commands over time. During the thursday meeting, we presented our kickoff presentation, and I presented the background info on why our research is necessary. Started to familarize myself with ROS outside of the meetings so I can start on security ASAP.
This is the slide I was tasked with presenting.
During the second sub-team meeting, we discussed in detail the tasks of each member, and I started on my task of watching the ROS tutorial videos and getting the docker image working. The complete playlist is https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwryRfFlSJT3-v8LAOat2KTGAXtGtmhni&si=UeIONITkxkBy3_NT However when it comes to setting up the docker package, I can't seem to figure it out, nor do I know exactly what questions to ask for troubleshooting, so I will be asking for help in the next in-person meeting.
I was able to figure out some of my docker image issues, but for some reason, I'm still having problems, so I will try to schedule a meeting with someone outside of normal meetings to get my image up and running.
We also learned a good bit about how to navigate in Linux, which was very helpful and adds a lot of important context to instructions.
Lastly, I read through some articles provided by Shrayes on security in ROS to better be prepared for when I finally get the docker image running:
https://csci6433.org/Papers/Anatomy%20of%20an%20ARP%20Poisoning%20Attack%20_%20WatchGuard.pdf
I first downloaded wireshark at https://www.wireshark.org/download.html and the in the VIP meeting for this week, we did a really neat wireshark exercise and determined how to identify pretty reasonably a cyber-physical system based off the pattern of which devices are speaking to each other, and the frequency/size of data being sent. Learned a good bit about addresses and how devices tend to communicate on a local network in the process of learning how to generally start investigating a network.
I also scheduled a meeting with Sabina outside the normal times to get docker help, currently the issue is the file isn't working for my version of windows.
This week, I worked with Gadriel to pull background information on ROSS security risks, and explained our findings in the midterm paper. I specifically discussed the risks of a physical robot, and the potential for an attacker to send faulty commands, data, and steal data from sensors and cameras. This is the portion in the security background that I contributed.
And here is the full paper https://www.overleaf.com/project/68dd49a8e4c028491a8777b5
This week we presented our midterm powerpoint as attached below, and I specifically edited and presented the background research and proposa lslide once more. The presentation went well as we have progressed well with navigation, building a robot, and setting up to actually perform a Man in the Middle attack. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xBhMsAR3wtNfLIh9K1_uX6pKQGoEuB4NYjrdfMEJkyo/edit?slide=id.g2bdc21486d8_0_11776#slide=id.g2bdc21486d8_0_11776
This week I was unable to attend the thursday meeting, but the wednesday subteam meeting was helpful and updated Gadriel and I on how the preparation for the MiTM attacks are going with Shrayas. In the meantime, I have redownloaded the entire dockerfile from scratch, but I keep getting a computer architecture issue like before whenever I try to build the image. This is odd because the build has worker for others with windows, so I will likely ask for help and start from scratch again during the next in-person meeting so I'm able to start practicing with the docker image. This week, I am unabble to schedule an additional help meeting due to exams.
Since I'm having computer architecture issues with the build command for the docker image (I'm on windows), I asked Will Cook who was helping us out this week, and was told to install WSL Linux. By running (wsl --install) in powershell, I installed the updated version of WSL. Here is the link with more instructions and details for anyone who is having computer architecture issues https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install
I'm now working to get accustumed to WSL and hopefully use this to pull, build, and run the docker container succesfully without further issues.https://docs.docker.com/desktop/features/wsl/ contains further information about using WSL with docker desktop, along with troubleshooting recommendations which I will be working through over the weekend and until I'm able to get the image working. When trying to build the image once more, I'm no longer getting a computer architecture issue, so I think I'm in a better place, and hopefully it's a much smaller problem now. I will be asking about tips during the subteam meeting now that I think I've fixed the architecture issue.
I FINALLY FIGURED OUT MY ARCHITECTURE ISSUE! As a note to anyone experiencing the same problem I was, if your system runs on amd64, you will not be able to build the docker provided by the VIP, as it uses arm64. Instead, install WSL if you have not already done so, and download ROS2 and GAZEBO directly. Alternatively, you can download ROS2 following the instructions on the website right here for Windows. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation/Windows-Install-Binary.html#downloading-ros-2 Key notes: Make sure to open Windows Powershell in Administrator mode, and install Chocolatey here with https://chocolatey.org/install While I figured out that issue, I do still have many questions and clarifications that I will be asking during the next meeting.
For the security sub-team, it's vital that i'm running the same package as the rest of the security sub-team and team in general. So i asked Shrayes and got clarification that we are using jazzy. I proceeded with downloading ROS2 a bit, but on the sub-team meeting on Wednesday, I was a little confused about Sabina's suggestion so I need to talk about it with her further next week. I'm also considering the fact that my laptop just may not be a good option for this project, however I do have access to another laptop over Christmas break that could totally be compatable with the dockerfile and be able to build the image as I was hoping. If this is the case, I will switch over to that for VIP tasks. I have a pretty solid understanding of how to troubleshoot some docker issues from this whole experience, so despite my frustrations with STILL having issues, I do feel more comfortable with the overall idea. I've also conttinued to research ARP poisoning for our PEN test, but as for specific directives, we are waiting for Shrayes to finish his first attack.
During the subteam meeting on wednesday, we discussed the final presentation. I still am having architecture issues, so I will be proceeding with my plan to try my other laptop over break with the hopes that the architecture will be more compatable. I wasn't able to attend the meeting on thursday due to a personal emergency, but I got the details of the meeting and prepared for the final presentation next week.
We presented out final slide deck of the semester, and I once again covered our background information in addition to describing the architecture issuses I have been experiencing all semester. The idea of class laptops with a standerdized architecture was mentioned by the Device Modeling Sub-Team, and I'm hopeful that that could be a potential solution for my issues as well. However, I will get the docker working on my other laptop so I can get acquainted with the talker and listener in my own time. Honestly I'd recommend that if someone has the same issues I did with their laptop's architecture, to see if there is a seperate laptop they could borrow for their time in the VIP. Here is our final presentation https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lINpsB5fZvNkzh9IbAD3VKBi9eWE81dEhYQh1fWTGr0/edit?usp=sharing