Implementing Data Diodes Using Commodity Hardware and Open Source Software
Researchers show commodity fiber gear and open-source software can implement reliable data diodes, releasing pydiode.
Commercial data diodes are expensive and mostly used in nuclear plants and classified government networks, but the one-way hardware path can be built from commodity fiber-optic gear. The authors measured packet loss and found most of it came from slow receive-side processing, often in clusters, and reduced it on Linux and macOS without superuser privileges. Default netcat, UDPcast, and lidi configurations were unreliable, while tuned UDPcast and lidi setups were reliable. They incorporated the results into pydiode, a cross-platform program for reliable one-way transfers.
- Commodity fiber-optic equipment can provide the one-way hardware path.
- Most packet loss came from slow receivers and often arrived in clusters.
- Default netcat, UDPcast, and lidi failed; tuned UDPcast and lidi worked.
- Findings were implemented in cross-platform pydiode for one-way transfers.
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgOne-way network devices, known as data diodes, are used to defend against sophisticated cyberattacks. Partly due to their high cost, data diodes are mostly deployed in nuclear power plants and within the government for handling classified information. Although commercially available data diodes are expensive, a data diode's hardware can assembled from commodity fiber-optic network equipment.
By Peter Story · arxiv.org
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