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Tag: Securus

  • Open as in Transparent: Instructure Conducts 2nd Public Security Audit on Canvas LMS

    I wrote a series of posts last fall about security testing for higher ed LMS products. In my initial post I called for more transparency.

    We need more transparency in the LMS market, and clients should have access to objective measurements of the security of a solution. To paraphrase Michael Feldstein’s suggestions from a 2009 post:

    • There is no guarantee that any LMS is more secure just because they say they are more secure
    • Customers should ask for, and LMS vendors should supply, detailed information on how the vendor or open source community has handled security issues in practice
    • LMS providers should make public a summary of vulnerabilities, including resolution time

    I would add to this call for transparency that LMS vendors and open source communities should share information from their third-party security audits and tests. All of the vendors that I talked to have some form of third-party penetration testing and security audits; however, how does this help the customer unless this information is transparent and available. Of course this transparency should not include details that would advertise vulnerabilities to hackers, but there should be some manner to be open and transparent on what the audits are saying.

    Subsequently I was asked by Instructure to serve as an embedded reporter as they undertook a public security audit. In a post from January 2012, Josh Coates called for other LMS vendors to follow suit.

    Despite the lack of response, Instructure declared their intent to test again in fall 2012.

    We will kick off our second annual open security audit in Q4. We invite any and all education companies to participate. We think education should be open, safe, and secure — and that corporations should be held accountable for their claims.

    Second Annual Audit for Canvas LMS

    True to their word, Instructure conducted another audit this year, again using Securus Global, described in this blog post and documented in this Securus report. I did not act as an embedded report this time around, but I would like to highlight some of the findings from the report.

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  • Instructure Security Assessment Results

    Instructure has engaged Securus Global to test the Canvas LMS product for security vulnerabilities.  Instructure has also invited me to be an independent observer – participating in the process and independently reporting on the testing and Instructure’s response to any vulnerabilities identified.  Part 1 of this series of posts described the concept.  Part 2 gave a mid-term update, describing the process involved and initial results.  In this post I’ll describe the full results of the security assessment.  I’ll add my actual analysis in the final post.

    The purpose of the testing was to validate and review the Canvas LMS design and implementation with respect to vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a motivated hacker.  Securus employed security experts to ethically hack, both manually and with automated tools, a test environment to try and identify specific vulnerabilities, working from the perspective of both an unauthorized user and an authorized user.  There was a range of exploits tested, but the basic idea is to find out if someone could access information or functionality that should be protected by system controls including role-based security.

    Summary of Findings

    The findings were presented to Instructure on November 29, 2011 in report form and with a conference call to discuss.

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  • Instructure Security Mid-Term

    Instructure has engaged Securus Global to test the Canvas LMS product for security vulnerabilities.  Instructure has also invited me to be an independent observer – participating in the process and independently reporting on the testing and Instructure’s response to any vulnerabilities identified.  Part 1 of this series of posts describes the concept.  In this post, I’ll give a mid-term update, describing the process involved and initial results.  In the next post I’ll describe the full results of the security testing.  I’ll try to keep my actual analysis in the final post, after I have objectively described the process and results.

    The purpose of the testing was to validate and review the Canvas LMS design and implementation with respect to vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a motivated hacker.  Securus employed security experts to ethically hack a test environment to try and identify specific vulnerabilities, working from the perspective of both an unauthorized user and an authorized user.  There was a range of exploits tested, but the basic idea is to find out if someone could access information or functionality that should be protected by system functionality including role-based security.

    There are two particular viewpoints that have led to my interest in this independent observer role.

    • No enterprise software platform is perfect and you should always expect some vulnerabilities.  The issue should not just be on whether there are vulnerabilities, but perhaps more importantly, on how a company or organization responds to a security vulnerability or incident.
    • I have called for transparency from LMS vendors and open source communities, arguing that they should share information from their third-party security audits and tests.

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