Authors - Shabnam Praveen, Shubham Kumar, Tulika Roy, Sanskriti Sahu, Subhangi Raj, Ranjita Kumari Dash Abstract - The implementation and design of a covert communication channel that embeds hidden information within TCP/IP packet headers rather than within the actual payload of the packets is presented as a project. This is different than traditional embedding methods (steganography), which typically embed data into multime dia files, in that steganography in this case utilizes header fields that are not cur rently in use or can be modified so that TCP/IP packets can transmit hidden data. The fields that are used to transmit hidden data are the IP Identification Field, TCP Sequence Number, TCP Acknowledgment Number, and TCP Window Size. The sender module encodes and generates packets, and the receiver retrieves packets, extracts encoded bits, and reassembles data from the encoded bits found in the packets. The integrity of the data is verified using a checksum (SHA-256) and packet loss is reported. The lack of a payload will further enhance the stealth various data transmission methods may enjoy as it will circumvent conventional intrusion detection techniques (which primarily examine the payload data within packets). This project will demonstrate the ability to use this or similar covert communication channels to implement covert communication systems. In addi tion, covert communication channels can be used for different types of files and demonstrate the security and educational value of covert channel research in net work security.
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