Description
A subliminal covert channel establishes a nearly undetectable communication session within a pre-established data stream between two separate entities. This document explains how HTTP can be utilized to facilitate a covert channel over both local and wide area networks. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) accounts for a majority of the Internet’s daily web traffic and is permitted within almost all network topologies. Therefore, HTTP is a prime medium for hiding messages and information communicated between separate parties. This paper illustrates a new approach to covertly encoding messages in the an HTTP message through use of the User-Agent and referrer strings in the HTTP Request Header.
Date of creation, presentation, or exhibit
6-2016
Document Type
Conference Paper
Department, Program, or Center
Department of Computing Security (GCCIS)
Recommended Citation
S. Heilman, J. Williams, and D. Johnson, "Covert Channel in HTTP User-Agents," 11th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA’16), Albany, NY, 2016, pp. 68-73.
Campus
RIT – Main Campus
