Behavioral Mimicry Covert Communication

2020

Int J Communication

Covert channels have been recently the subject of the study in both creation and countermeasure aspects. There are many different ways to embed the covert data in network standards and protocols, especially in wireless networks. MORE (MAC-independent opportunistic routing) is an opportunistic routing protocol which uses networks coding to enhance routing performance by reducing the repetitions. This protocol can be a suitable medium for covert channel establishment. A middleman covert channel establishment method is proposed in this paper over MORE routing protocol and with the use of network coding. Hidden data are transferred through packet's payload bytes. Covert sender manipulates coding mechanism by calculating packets' coefficients instead of random selection. The proposed covert channel provides the average throughput of 218 and 231 bps, using two different data length approaches which is relatively a good comparing to the previous network layer covert channels. The proposed covert channel is also a covert storage channel and cannot be removed or restricted. Effect of different network characteristics on the proposed method's capacity and security is investigated by a simulation study, and the results are discussed. K E Y W O R D Scovert channel, network coding, network steganography, opportunistic routing protocols

Section: Performance Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Middleman covert channel establishment based on MORE routing protocol using network coding in ad hoc networks

Akhtari

2020

Int J Communication

“…As these fitting symbols do not include any covert message, the covert channel's throughput is decreased. In , a covert channel is created by mimicking the behavioral characteristics of 802.11 wireless networks that result in low throughput with high level of covertness. The author of creates a hidden channel using QoS features in 802.11e standard.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive ternary timing covert channel inIEEE802.11

Tahmasbi

Security Comm. Networks

2016

Covert channel is one of the most interesting topics in the computer networks security. Covert channel designers are seeking to discover weaknesses in the communications algorithms to use them as the medium for covert transmission. Broadcast nature of wireless channels has provided a favorable environment for the design of the hidden channels. CSMA/CA is used to control channel access in IEEE 802.11 network. Random features of this algorithm can be used to create timing covert channel. The statistical distribution of the free time intervals' duration is used in this paper for covert channel establishment. Hidden messages are sent via manipulating the timing of the overt packets' transmission. Hidden transceiver senses the wireless channel continuously to be adapted to the dynamic network condition and to be less detectable. To increase the covert channel's accuracy, some free interval durations are not used that leads to security degradation. This problem is also covered by a gap covering method that is based on the summation of the channel sensed free time interval distribution and a normal one. Hidden nodes also estimate the number of active nodes and adapt their behavior accordingly to keep their compatibility with the network. The statistical Kolmogorov-Smirnov and regularity tests are used to assess the security of the covert channel. Simulation results show that the proposed covert channel have a high bit rate along with high security.

Code-based timing Covert channel in IEEE 802.11

Tahmasbi

2015 5th International Conference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE)

2015

Steganography and Covert channels, their design and detection has been one of the most important issues in security systems and computer networks. One of the media that is used for steganography is JPEG images. The purpose of many steganography techniques in pictures is to insert more covert information in image's pixels with few changes.One of methods in JPEG steganography is EMD (Exploiting Modification Direction). EMD tries to increase embedding efficiency which means embed more hidden bits for each change. On the other hand, due to widespread use of wireless networks, designing covert channels in these networks has also attracted a lot of attention. Local wireless networks have a high degree of randomness in the selection of back off times in their collision avoidance algorithm. This feature can be used to create covert channels. In this article, the idea ofEMD method is discussed to create a covert channel in wireless networks. The goal is to achieve high throughput with high degree of secu rity.