Abstract

In “Exploring a High-Capacity Covert Channel for the Android Operating System” [1], a covert channel for communicating between different applications on the Android operating system was introduced and evaluated. This covert channel proved to be capable of a much higher throughput than any other comparable channels which had been explored previously. This article will expand on the work which was started in [1]. Specifically, further improvements on the initial covert channel concept will be detailed and their impact with regards to channel throughput will be evaluated. In addition, a new protocol for managing connections and communications between collaborating applications purely using this channel will be defined and explored. A number of different potential mechanisms and techniques for detecting the presence and use of this covert channel will also be described and discussed, including possible counter-measures, which could be implemented.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Date

2016

Document Type

Article

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Computing Security (GCCIS)

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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