Entropy-based analyzing anomaly WEB traffic

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Nasseralfoghara, Mehrdad | Hamidi, HamidReza^{; *}

Affiliations: Faculty of Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Iran. E-mails: mnaser1992@gmail.com, hamidreza.hamidi@eng.ikiu.ac.ir

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +98-28-3390-1290; E-mail: hamidreza.hamidi@eng.ikiu.ac.ir.

Abstract: The application nature of HTTP protocol allows the creation of a covert timing channel based on different features of this protocol (or different levels) that has not been addressed in previous research. In this article, the entropy-based detection method was designed and implemented. The attacker can adjust the amount of channel entropy by controlling measures such as changing the channel’s level or creating noise on the channel to protect from the analyzer’s detection. As a result, the entropy threshold is not always constant for detection. By comparing the entropy from different levels of the channel and the analyzer, we concluded that the analyzer must investigate traffic at all possible levels. We also illustrated that by making noise on a covert channel, its capacity would decrease, but as entropy increases, it would be harder to detect it.

Keywords: Information security, convert channel, timing channel, WEB, entropy

DOI: 10.3233/JHS-200642

Journal: Journal of High Speed Networks, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 255-266, 2020