Network Steganography using the Overflow Field of Timestamp Option in an IPv4 Packet

Abstract

Abstract Steganography is a technique of hiding secret data inside a cover. The most popularly used cover media include images, videos, audios, documents and network protocols. Network Steganography is a technique that uses common network protocols (the header field, the payload field or both) to hide a secret message. TCP/IP protocol suite has been a potential target for network steganography from the very beginning. It has a lot of possibilities for creation of hidden channels that can be used to communicate covertly. In this paper, we propose a technique that creates a covert channel using the Overflow field of Timestamp option of Internet Protocol, version 4 over a Local Area Network. This technique implements a storage based network steganography that uses the timestamp option which is used for debugging and measurement over the networks. In this technique, we use legitimate values in the Overflow field which makes it difficult to detect the possibility of covert communication.