Code Layering for the Detection of Network Covert Channels in Agentless Systems

Abstract

The growing interest in agentless and serverless environments for the implementation of virtual/container network functions makes monitoring and inspection of network services challenging tasks. A major requirement concerns the agility of deploying security agents at runtime, especially to effectively address emerging and advanced attack patterns. This work investigates a framework leveraging the extended Berkeley Packet Filter to create ad-hoc security layers in virtualized architectures without the need of embedding additional agents. To prove the effectiveness of the approach, we focus on the detection of network covert channels, i.e., hidden/parasitic network conversations difficult to spot with legacy mechanisms. Experimental results demonstrate that different types of covert channels can be revealed with a good accuracy while using limited resources compared to existing cybersecurity tools (i.e., Zeek and libpcap).