Designing and Modeling of Covert Channels in Operating Systems

ISCAS OpenIR

	Designing and Modeling of Covert Channels in Operating Systems
	Lin, YQ; Malik, SUR; Bilal, K; Yang, QS; Wang, YJ; Khan, SU
	2016
发表期刊	IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
ISSN	0018-9340
卷号	65 期号:6 页码:1706-1719
摘要	Covert channels are widely considered as a major risk of information leakage in various operating systems, such as desktop, cloud, and mobile systems. The existing works of modeling covert channels have mainly focused on using finite state machines (FSMs) and their transforms to describe the process of covert channel transmission. However, a FSM is rather an abstract model, where information about the shared resource, synchronization, and encoding/decoding cannot be presented in the model, making it difficult for researchers to realize and analyze the covert channels. In this paper, we use the high-level Petri Nets (HLPN) to model the structural and behavioral properties of covert channels. We use the HLPN to model the classic covert channel protocol. Moreover, the results from the analysis of the HLPN model are used to highlight the major shortcomings and interferences in the protocol. Furthermore, we propose two new covert channel models, namely: (a) two channel transmission protocol (TCTP) model and (b) self-adaptive protocol (SAP) model. The TCTP model circumvents the mutual inferences in encoding and synchronization operations; whereas the SAP model uses sleeping time and redundancy check to ensure correct transmission in an environment with strong noise. To demonstrate the correctness and usability of our proposed models in heterogeneous environments, we implement the TCTP and SAP in three different systems: (a) Linux, (b) Xen, and (c) Fiasco. OC. Our implementation also indicates the practicability of the models in heterogeneous, scalable and flexible environments.; Covert channels are widely considered as a major risk of information leakage in various operating systems, such as desktop, cloud, and mobile systems. The existing works of modeling covert channels have mainly focused on using finite state machines (FSMs) and their transforms to describe the process of covert channel transmission. However, a FSM is rather an abstract model, where information about the shared resource, synchronization, and encoding/decoding cannot be presented in the model, making it difficult for researchers to realize and analyze the covert channels. In this paper, we use the high-level Petri Nets (HLPN) to model the structural and behavioral properties of covert channels. We use the HLPN to model the classic covert channel protocol. Moreover, the results from the analysis of the HLPN model are used to highlight the major shortcomings and interferences in the protocol. Furthermore, we propose two new covert channel models, namely: (a) two channel transmission protocol (TCTP) model and (b) self-adaptive protocol (SAP) model. The TCTP model circumvents the mutual inferences in encoding and synchronization operations; whereas the SAP model uses sleeping time and redundancy check to ensure correct transmission in an environment with strong noise. To demonstrate the correctness and usability of our proposed models in heterogeneous environments, we implement the TCTP and SAP in three different systems: (a) Linux, (b) Xen, and (c) Fiasco. OC. Our implementation also indicates the practicability of the models in heterogeneous, scalable and flexible environments.
收录类别	SCI
关键词	Covert Channels High-level Petri Nets (Hlpn) Operating Systems Modeling And Security
部门归属	Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Software, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China. COMSATS Inst Informat Technol, Islamabad, Pakistan. COMSATS Inst Informat Technol, Abbottabad, Pakistan. Chinese Acad Sci, State Key Lab Comp Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China. Chinese Acad Sci, Natl Engn Res Ctr Fundamental Software, Inst Software, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China. N Dakota State Univ, Dept Elect & Comp Engn, Fargo, ND 58108 USA.
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000376879300003
引用统计
内容类型	期刊论文
URI标识	http://ir.iscas.ac.cn/handle/311060/17330
专题	中国科学院软件研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Lin, YQ,Malik, SUR,Bilal, K,et al. Designing and Modeling of Covert Channels in Operating Systems[J]. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS,2016,65(6):1706-1719.
APA	Lin, YQ,Malik, SUR,Bilal, K,Yang, QS,Wang, YJ,&Khan, SU.(2016).Designing and Modeling of Covert Channels in Operating Systems.IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS,65(6),1706-1719.
MLA	Lin, YQ,et al."Designing and Modeling of Covert Channels in Operating Systems".IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS 65.6(2016):1706-1719.

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