Covert channels are hidden communication channels not designed for information transfer. A covert channel can be used to signal secret information within a network, i.e. it is possible to leak secret information (e.g. confidential business data as well as research secrets).
We have well-known intrusion detection systems (such as Snort) but there is currently no covert channel detection system available as a software solution. Thus, there is a need for the development of an open source software with the aim to develop such a covert channel detection/prevention system able to work on network appliances. Covert channels can be used by intruders for information leakage. Therefore an information leakage protection is required. The importance of covert channels will raise within the next years (AT&T Chief Security Officer Ed Amoroso already mentioned that covert channel research must be resumed back in 2009). Call for developers
This project requires open source software developers (with specialization in network programming in the Linux/Unix/BSD environment), and here is the call:
If you are interested in contributing to the first and open covert channel detection/prevention software, then let us know. The goal is to build an international team of experts, as well as to do additional research in that area.
Roland Koch (mail@devko.de, www.devko.de)
Steffen Wendzel (steffen@ploetner-it.de, www.wendzel.de)
Sebastian Zander (szander@swin.edu.au)
Hal Wigoda (hal.wigoda@gmail.com)
Yavuz Gokirmak (ygokirmak@gmail.com)
Sriram (rammacharla@rediffmail.com)
Project coordination is done by S. Wendzel (steffen@ploetner-it.de), but feel free to contact all authors on a direct way. In case you have algorithm-specific questions, you may ask the person marked as author of the code file implementing that algorithm.
Steffen Wendzel: Verdeckte Kanäle - Neuland für freie Software, Open-Source-Treffen München, Jul-22-2011. (in German)
Steffen Wendzel: Aktuelle Techniken und Methoden der verdeckten Kommunikationskanäle, Chaos Singularity (CoSin) 2011, Biel, Switzerland, Jun-25-2011. (in German)
To be created.
You can access the subversion repository, as well as you can download latest snapshot's tarball.
Access our forums to ask questions.