Re: Detecting covert data channels?
<jeremy <at> deities.org>
2007-07-13 17:21:49 GMT
The key question here is 'why?' If your goal is detection and forensics then collecting batches of data for
statistical analysis is likely to be both possible and the best approach. You'll want to analyze the data
in multiple dimensions to look for anomalies across volume, targets, protocol structure, sequencing,
fragmentation, metadata, etc. (Remember you covert channel may not be in the data at all it may be as subtle
as the timing of when the packets arrive or the order)
For this approach I'd tend to use tcpdump and various custom scripts doing the batch analysis.
If your goal is to prevent data leakage or generally prevent unmonitored communications then I think that
detection is mostly moot. Instead you should focus on prevention. In this case, analyze what you can and
what you care about and normalize the rest. All covert channels I can think of rely on using parts of the data
streams that are not used for the core protocol goals. Therefore normalizing traffic rates, header
fields, sequencing, fragmentation, etc will simply remove the opportunity for almost all covert channels.
You will, of course, still need the forensic approach above if you want to increase your confidence but as
you find each possible channel you'll probably only need to modify your normalization to remove it.
-J
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