Notes

Meeting Date: Tuesday, 28.03.2023 at 2:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Discussion of planning progress
2. Presentation and discussion of the current Literature Review Outline
3. Discussion of the project focus
4. Discussion of the further project development process
5. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• A first literature review was carried out.
• There is a rough plan regarding the procedure.

2.

• Some comments and suggested changes regarding the literature review outline are available in the form of feedback.
• The subchapter "Topologies of smart home networks" is not necessary.
• There should be less focus on communication protocols that have been established for a long time.

3.

• It should be a less focus on techniques that have already been studied and discussed.
• Greater focus on the questions: What is Matter? What makes Matter special? How is Matter different from other Smart Home IoT standards/protocols? What benefits can be seen in Matter? What dangers/threats can be identified?

4.

• There is currently a lack of a reflected validation and verification process to justify how the goals in the project can be achieved, or how an appropriate evaluation process (hypothesis analysis) can be carried out.
• An ethical discussion focusing on the responsibility of matter and possible consequences for users and society should be undertaken.
• The creation of the research proposal is the next milestone. In addition to the formatives, which accompany the development process through feedback, another meeting is arranged before the deadline.

5.

• Next meeting: Wednesday 12.04.2023 at 1:15 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Wednesday, 12.04.2023 at 1:15 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Discussion of the research proposal first draft
2. Clarification of questions regarding the methodology (quantitative or qualitative approach)
3. Discussion of the planned structure of the project
4. Finding and agreement of a suitable project heading

Meeting Notes:

1.

• The first draft of the research proposal is generally fine, with only minor changes that need to be made.
• The changes relate primarily to the following agenda topics.

2.

• When choosing the data collection method, concerns are expressed about how this can enable the validation process.
• Flexibility in relation to this method in the course of the project should be sought.
• In order to make this possible, there should initially be no commitment to quantitative or qualitative data collection.

3.

• For the research proposal, it is recommended to move the section 'The communication standard Matter' to the Introduction.

4.

• The currently selected title of the Capstone project should be revised, as it is not precise enough and makes it difficult to verify that the goal has been achieved.
• Due to the focus of the project on security measures, the second section of the title regarding the usefulness of the Matter communication standard should be deleted.

The next meeting will be arranged once the research proposal has been submitted and evaluated.

Meeting Date: Thursday, 27.04.2023 at 12:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Feedback on the Research Proposal
2. Clarification of open questions (verification & validation; planned artefacts)
3. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• In general, the research proposal is fine, but the following aspects are missing, which must be taken into account and included for the dissertation.
• It is not clear how the verification and validation should take place.
• There is no risk assessment. Such risks can be related to issues in the development process, such as a new version of Matter during research, but also personal challenges.
• There is no listing and discussion of the tools used for the project.

2.

• Problems with the planned structure can be identified, as these are poorly compatible with the given structure of a dissertation.
• The structure should be based on the following:
• Introduction (1300 words or 10%): The ethical considerations, as well as requirements and the procedure should also be located here.
• Literature Review
• Design, Implementation & Methodology
• Findings & Evaluation
• Conclusion

3.

• Next meeting: Wednesday 17.05.2023 at 12:30 -13:00 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Wednesday 17.05.2023 at 12:30 -13:00 (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Feedback on the Literature Review
2. Discussion of the conduct of the experiments
3. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• In general, the Literature Review is okay, but individual points are noted that should be revised and supplemented.
• The Literature Review should not be completly redesigned. Rather, other aspects should be added.
• The Literature Review lacks critcality.
• It should be questioned why the communication standard Matter is necessary. Why do we need Matter?
• Other standards (such als Zigbee) should also be considerd and compared in more detail. A discussion of the technical history of communication standards should be made in order to be able to compare the respective pros and cons (thus the need for Matter could be concluded).
• The section 'The communcation standard matter' should be removed from the Literature Review and implemented in a different or seperate section.

2.

• Challenges regarding the cration of the Matter network are mentioned.
• Recommendations are made to use the Ubuntu operating system.
• For the time being, the focus should be on developing the acutal project (setting up Matter and start with the experiments).

3.

• Next meeting: Wednesday 07.06.2023 at 12:00 -12:30 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Wednesday 07.06.2023 at 12:00 -12:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Presentation of the current project progress
2. Discussion of issues and challenges
3. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• The current state of development is explaned. There weere some challenges to create the Matter network, but finally it was possible to set one up.
• Since devices can now be successfully integrated into the smart home Matter network, the implementation of the penetration test is amied at in the further course.

2.

• An issue was found when creating a Matter application. Contrary to what CSA states, the all-cluster-app applicaiton cannot be installed on an ESP32-S3 controller.
• Furthermore, it was found that the Goolge home hub controller (Google Nest Hub 2) does not allwo Matter devices to be embedded if they are not certified by Matter. On the other hand, this is possible with an Ipad as a hub controller.
• It is recommended thath these issues are discussed as part of the project (e.g. security vs usability).
• Furthermore, the wireshark tool is recommended for penetration testing. The screenrecoder tool is recomended for documenting the precedure and the test results.

3.

• Next meeting: Wednseday 28.06.2023 at 12:00 -12:30 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Wednesday 28.06.2023 at 3:00 - 3:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Presentation of the obtainded test results
2. Discussion of issues regarding the tests
3. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• Discussing the test results regarding random BLE MAC addresses, it is noted that this feature is a relatively new one. The assumption is made that this is a security feature. A more in-depth analysis might therefore be useful.
• It is noted that a more explicit explanation of how the tests are performed is necessary to enable a better understanding of the procedures.
• It is recommended to better visualize the pcap documents, which are collected using Wireshark, using other applications. One such application is Nethar.

2.

• Regarding the problems of WiFi packet sniffing, it is assumed that these can be solved by modified firmware. However, modification is not recommended as it may damage the OS. Further informations could be get over kismet.
• One solution could be to create a router using Openwrt or Tina Linux. This should be tried out to carry out the replay attack.

3.

• Next meeting: Thursday 13.07.2023 at 2:00 -2:30 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Thursday 13.07.2023 at 2:00 -2:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Presentation and discussion of the captured test results of the replay attack
2. Confirmation of further development process of the project
3. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• The procedure for carrying out the replay attacks was presented. Approaches were also discussed which did not lead to any result.
• It is noted that the practices that led to impasses can also be of great use as these should be mentioned under the lessons learned section of the discussion.

2.

• The aspects of verification, validation and ethics must be taken into account in the dissertation. Verification refers to the question of how to ensure that the results of the tests are those that should be examined and are not influenced by other factors. Validation includes confirming the results with regard to the actual question. Ethics, in the context of this project, refers to the societal question of why Matter is necessary at all (in terms of interoperability and security), but also what meaning it has for the user and society.
• It is recommended to support the introduction with known attacks and leaks in order to point out the need for a new communication standard in the smart home area.
• The references of Github content should be based on the creator and the posting date.
• A list of possible declaration formulations will be sent. The acknowledgments section will be discussed at a later date.
• In terms of structure, the Results and discussion sections should be separated from each other. First of all, all test procedures and results should be presented and only then should a discussion of these take place.

3.

• Next meeting: Friday 04.08.2023 at 2:00 -2:30 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Friday 04.08.2023 at 2:00 - 2:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Presentation and discussion of the Results section
2. Presentation and discussion of the Discussion section
3. Final questions regarding the dissertation and reschedule of a first draft submittion
4. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1./2.

• The drafts for the Results and Discussion sections are ok so far, but minor revisions should be made.
• A subchapter should be included that considers and discusses the aspects of verification and validation.
• Furthermore, the Lessons Learned section should be described in more detail as it is currently very short.
• In order to be able to make the additions and at the same time stay within the word limit, it should be examined whether tables can help to reduce the word count.
• It should be checked if there are any character errors in the Discussions section as these have been spotted by the supervisors.

3.

• The offer was made to attend upcoming presentations by other students. These will take place from 14th August.
• Questions regarding the design of the dissertation were resolved, these include: The page number as present may be retained. The appendix should be continued numerically with Arabic numbers. Only important things should be in the appendix, which does not have to be explicitly noted in the main body. The Declaration and Acknowledgment sections can remain on the same page.
• It is agreed that the first draft will be sent for feedback as soon as it is finalised. This should ideally be done before 12th August.

4.

• Next meeting: Thursday, 31.08.2023 at 13:15 - 13:45 pm (GMT)

Meeting Date: Thursday 31.08.2023 at 1:00-1:30 pm (GMT)

Agenda:

1. Discussion of the first draft of the dissertation and feedback
2. Agreement of the next meeting

Meeting Notes:

1.

• The dissertation is already in a relatively good stage.
• However, there is some feedback and suggestios for improvement, which can be found in the submitted files.
• The term deauthentication is American, de-authentication should be chosen as the English term.
• No references should be stated in the abstract.
• The methodology section could be supported with illustrations.
• Regarding the presentation, it is not recommended to play videos. However, videos can be used as a further source.

2.

• Next meeting: Friday, 15.09.2023 at 1:00 - 1:30 pm (GMT)