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Covert Channels

This document discusses covert channels and steganography. It defines covert channels as communication channels that violate a system's security policy and were not intended for communication. Steganography is defined as concealing information in benign channels. The document covers the properties, usage, examples, and detection of covert channels and steganography. It provides examples of using wireless signals, audio/video files, and encrypted data to hide secret messages. Statistical analysis and comparing files to originals are discussed as methods to detect hidden information.

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32 views17 pages

Covert Channels

This document discusses covert channels and steganography. It defines covert channels as communication channels that violate a system's security policy and were not intended for communication. Steganography is defined as concealing information in benign channels. The document covers the properties, usage, examples, and detection of covert channels and steganography. It provides examples of using wireless signals, audio/video files, and encrypted data to hide secret messages. Statistical analysis and comparing files to originals are discussed as methods to detect hidden information.

Uploaded by

jose2985
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Covert Channels

John Dabney
Covert Channels
 “. . . any communication channel that can
be exploited by a process to transfer
information in a manner that violates the
system's security policy.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
 “a path of communication that was not
designed to be used for communication.”
- Matt Bishop
Steganography
 “the practice of concealing information in
channels that superficially appear benign.”
 “While cryptography is about protecting
the content of messages, steganography
is about concealing their very existence.” –
Fabien Petitcolas
Properties
 Existence
 Hide the fact that communication is taking place
 Bandwidth
 Unused
 Detectability
 Evaluation
 Ease of implementation
 Range
 Permissibility
 Probability of detection
 Anonymity
 “Unobservable”
 “Unlinkable”
Usage
 Network
 Wireless - Corrupted headers
 Modifying header fields
 Optional/mandatory – bits used infrequently raise
risk of detection
 Modifying existing traffic
 Audio and Video stenograms
 Encryption
 Canary trap and Digital watermarking
An example
 http://www.petitcolas.net/fabien/
steganography/image%5Fdowngrading/
64 KB hidden
129 KB hidden
194 KB hidden
258 KB hidden
323 KB hidden
388 KB “hidden”
452 KB “hidden”
Detection
 Comparison with original
 Artifacts from applications used to hide
information
 Statistical analysis
 Wireless - High error rates
Mitigation
 Not complete elimination
 Isolation
 Bandwidth - time
 Randomness/Uniformity
 Compression
 Changing formats
 Disabling certain traffic
Questions?
?
Bibliography
 Bishop, Matt. Introduction to Computer Security. Massachusetts: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.
 “Canary Trap.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap. April 26, 2007.
 “Covert Channels.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_channel. April 26, 2007.
 Dunbar, Bret. A detailed look at Steganographic Techniques and their use in an Open-Systems
Environment. SANS Institute. 01/18/2002
http://www.sans.org/reading_room/papers/download.php?
id=677&c=29cae459acbc32dac569453048050082&portal=67dfc17e34bed372c83983ad0cbd5
629. April 26, 2007.
 Owens, Mark. A Discussion of Covert Channels and Steganography. SANS/GIAC GSEC 1.3.
March 19, 2002.
http://www.sans.org/reading_room/papers/download.php?id=678&c=29cae459acbc32dac569453
048050082&portal=67dfc17e34bed372c83983ad0cbd5629
. April 26, 2007.
 Petitcolas, Fabien. “the information hiding homepage digital watermarking and steganography.”
(Nov. 2006) Fabien a. p. petitcolas. http://www.petitcolas.net/fabien/steganography/image
%5Fdowngrading/ April 26, 2007.
 Sbrusch, Raymond. Network Covert Channels: Subversive Secrecy. SANS Institute.
http://www.sans.org/reading_room/papers/download.php?id=1660&c=29cae459acbc32dac56945
3048050082&portal=67dfc17e34bed372c83983ad0cbd5629
. April 26, 2007
 “Steganography.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography. April 26, 2007.
 Wingate, Jim. The Perfect Dead Drop: The Use of Cyberspace for Covert Communications.
BackBone Security.com. http://www.infosec-technologies.com/steganograph.pdf. April 26, 2007.

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