Role-based access control for openHAB users

Details

Supervisors

Riviere, Etienne ; Zavalyshyn, Igor

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] en cybersécurité, à finalité spécialisée: conception et analyse de systèmes

Abstract

Open home automation bus (openHAB) is a technology-agnostic home automation platform to manage Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes. OpenHAB is commonly used and its necessity increases fastly. This environment is developing rapidly and needs improvements in terms of access control and potential security breaches. This thesis intents to further study these two areas of improvement. The first chapter is dedicated to the context of openHab and the shortage of access control. IoT devices, IoT ecosystems, and smart homes are first introduced. The OpenHAB platform managing these components will be explained. Why it is a good idea to choose OpenHAB over proprietary IoT platforms. The evaluation of open-source IoT platforms for smart homes by B. Setz, S. Graef, D. Ivanova A. Tiessen, and M. Aiello will be explained. Despite the fact that openHAB is a robust home automation software, it has limited access control which will be illustrated through a scenario that is a smart family home. RBAC is the model chosen to address the lack of access control in the scenario. The goals will be stated to enable RBAC for openHAB users in a running instance of openHAB. Finally, the contribution made to openHAB will be detailed. The objective of this second chapter is to have a better understanding of openHAB. The main concepts of openHAB will be defined. The general architecture of the home automation software will be illustrated. Then, the configuration of the smart family home which is our scenario will be explained step by step, with the semantic model, the syntax of the Items, the installed Bindings, and the configured Things, Channels, Items, and Links. Finally, the way the scenario can be reached and configured will be explained. The main chapter is chapter three which details how RBAC for openHAB users is implemented in openHAB. The technical concepts of openHAB such as the architecture of openHAB with a technical perspective, the client-server model, and the access control management of the IoT platform will be outlined. The steps to build and run an instance of openHAB with changes will be specified. How roles and groups are persistently managed and how resources sent to a user are filtered based on their roles and role groups will be exposed. Implemented functions and modifications to the main UI are performed and explained to manage the RBAC model in the openHAB IoT ecosystem. By enabling RBAC for openHAB users, fine-grained access control of resources for smart family home users (which is the illustrated scenario) is possible. Incorporating the RBAC model is not an easy task, so how the challenges encountered are overcome will be described. Finally, potential security vulnerabilities will be listed and how these vulnerabilities can be fixed with features already present in openHAB and resolved by implementing the RBAC model in openHAB. The thesis will end with a conclusion explaining how important the RBAC model can be in openHAB.