Abstract
The exploration of advanced covert timing channel design is important to understand and defend against covert timing channels. In this paper, we introduce a new class of covert timing channels, called model-based covert timing channels, which exploit the statistical properties of legitimate network traffic to evade detection in an effective manner. We design and implement an automated framework for building model-based covert timing channels. Our framework consists of four main components: filter, analyzer, encoder, and transmitter. The filter characterizes the features of legitimate network traffic, and the analyzer fits the observed traffic behavior to a model. Then, the encoder and transmitter use the model to generate covert traffic and blend with legitimate network traffic. The framework is lightweight, and the overhead induced by model fitting is negligible. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we conduct a series of experiments in LAN and WAN environments. The experimental results show that model-based covert timing channels provide a significant increase in detection resistance with only a minor loss in capacity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Department of Defense, U.S.: Trusted computer system evaluation criteria (1985)
Lampson, B.W.: A note on the confinement problem. Communications of the ACMÂ 16(10) (October 1973)
Wang, Z., Lee, R.: Covert and side channels due to processor architecture. In: Jesshope, C., Egan, C. (eds.) ACSAC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4186, Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Fisk, G., Fisk, M., Papadopoulos, C., Neil, J.: Eliminating steganography in internet traffic with active wardens. In: Proc. of the 2002 International Workshop on Information Hiding (October 2002)
Kang, M.H., Moskowitz, I.S.: A pump for rapid, reliable, secure communication. In: Proc. of ACM CCS 1993 (November 1993)
Kang, M.H., Moskowitz, I.S., Lee, D.C.: A network version of the pump. In: Proc. of the 1995 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (May 1995)
Kang, M.H., Moskowitz, I.S., Chincheck, S.: The pump: A decade of covert fun. In: Srikanthan, T., Xue, J., Chang, C.-H. (eds.) ACSAC 2005. LNCS, vol. 3740. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Giles, J., Hajek, B.: An information-theoretic and game-theoretic study of timing channels. IEEE Trans. on Information Theory 48(9) (September 2002)
Berk, V., Giani, A., Cybenko, G.: Covert channel detection using process query systems. In: Proc. of FLOCON 2005 (September 2005)
Berk, V., Giani, A., Cybenko, G.: Detection of covert channel encoding in network packet delays. Technical Report TR2005-536, Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH., USA (August 2005)
Cabuk, S., Brodley, C., Shields, C.: IP covert timing channels: Design and detection. In: Proc. of ACM CCS (October 2004)
Shah, G., Molina, A., Blaze, M.: Keyboards and covert channels. In: Proc. of the 2006 USENIX Security Symposium (July–August, 2006)
Gianvecchio, S., Wang, H.: Detecting covert timing channels: An entropy-based approach. In: Proceedings of the 2007 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (October 2007)
Luo, X., Chan, E.W.W., Chang, R.K.C.: Cloak: A ten-fold way for reliable covert communications. In: Biskup, J., López, J. (eds.) ESORICS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4734, pp. 283–298. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Arimoto, S.: An algorithm for computing the capacity of arbitrary discrete memoryless channels. IEEE Trans. on Information Theory 18(1) (January 1972)
Blahut, R.E.: Computation of channel capacity and rate-distortion functions. IEEE Trans. on Information Theory 18(4) (July 1972)
Borders, K., Prakash, A.: Web tap: Detecting covert web traffic. In: Proc. of ACM CCS 2004 (October 2004)
Wang, X., Reeves, D.S.: Robust correlation of encrypted attack traffic through stepping stones by manipulation of interpacket delays. In: Proc. of ACM CCS 2003 (October 2003)
Yu, W., Fu, X., Graham, S., Xuan, D., Zhao, W.: Dsss-based flow marking technique for invisible traceback. In: Proc. of the 2007 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Washington, DC, USA (May 2007)
Peng, P., Ning, P., Reeves, D.S.: On the secrecy of timing-based active watermarking trace-back techniques. In: Proc. of the 2006 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (May 2006)
Moskowitz, I.S., Kang, M.H.: Covert channels - here to stay? In: Proc. of the 1994 Annual Conf. on Computer Assurance (June 1994)
Cao, J., Cleveland, W.S., Lin, D., Sun, D.X.: On the nonstationarity of internet traffic. In: Proc. of SIGMETRICS/Performance 2001 (June 2001)
Leemis, L., Park, S.K.: Discrete-Event Simulation: A First Course. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River (2006)
Zheng, L., Zhang, L., Xu, D.: Characteristics of network delay and delay jitter and its effect on oice over IP (VoIP). In: Proc. of the 2001 IEEE International Conf. on Communications (June 2001)
Duda, R., Hart, P., Stork, D.: Pattern Classification. Wiley-Interscience, New York (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gianvecchio, S., Wang, H., Wijesekera, D., Jajodia, S. (2008). Model-Based Covert Timing Channels: Automated Modeling and Evasion. In: Lippmann, R., Kirda, E., Trachtenberg, A. (eds) Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection. RAID 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5230. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87403-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87403-4_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87402-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87403-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)