GRASP: A Visualization Tool for Teaching Security Protocols
Dino Schweitzer, Leemon C. Baird, Michael J. Collins, Wayne Brown, Michael Sherman · 2006
Security protocols are an important conc ept in teaching information security. Students need to un derstand both the sequence of passed information and computa tions, as well as the various attacks on them via eavesdroppe rs, forged messages, communication blocks, and message replays . A traditional approach to teaching protocols is to us e a static diagram showing the transfer of messages between participants over time. This paper describes an in teractive visualization tool that allows arbitrary protocols to be demonstrated visually in a user-controlled stepwise manner. The user can interactively change the protocol to s ee the effects of various attacks. The tool can be used i n a classroom environment or as a laboratory exercise. The paper also describes sample scenarios for using the tool and t he experience to date of use in an undergraduate infor mation security class.