/senior-design

Repository for a senior design group at the University of Cincinnati. Our project is to create a framework for designing a covert channel and creating an example.

Primary LanguagePython

Final Design Report

Table Of Contents

1.) Team Members 2.) Project Advisor 3.) Project Description 4.) User Stories 5.) Design Diagrams 6.) Project Tasks 7.) Project Timeline 8.) Slide Show 9.) Self-Assessment Essays 10.) Professional Biographies 11.) Budget 12.) Appendix

Team Covert

  • Ian Armstrong
  • Chase Ashby
  • Noah Orr
  • John Schlagbaum

Project Advisor

  • Professor John Franco

Project Description

Our project goal is to create a generalized framework for creating a covert channel of communication and provide a working example of one.

Covert channels are a major threat to software systems, yet upon researching them, there are more resources on how to detect them than on how to build them. We believe that for cyber-security engineers to be able to stop system exploits from covert channels then they need to understand how they are built.

User Stories

  • As a hacker, I want to design a covert channel based on the framework, to save time.
  • As a hacker, I want to refer to the framework when designing my covert channel, to have guidance.
  • As a government official, I want to be capable of transmitting information in a covert channel, to prevent detection.
  • As a cyber security analysis, I want to learn from this framework, to help detect covert channels.

Design Diagrams

Link to Design Diagrams

Project Tasks

  • Read, research, and note-take on meltdown.pdf

  • Read, research, and note-take on spectre.pdf

  • Read, research, and note-take on technologiesofcovertnetworks.pdf

  • Read, research, and note-take on 'Understand Covert Channels of Communication' web article

  • Read, research, and note-take on 'How Insiders Use TCP/IP to create Covert Channels' web article

  • Read, research, and note-take on 'Steganography' web article

  • Read, research, and note-take on covertcommunicationinmobileapplications.pdf

  • Read, research, and note-take on designofcovertattacks.pdf

  • Read, research, and note-take on practicaldevelopmentanddeploymentofcovertcommunication.pdf

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all design the layout of the framework

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all develop the framework

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all refine the framework

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all test the framework

  • Ian, Noah, Chase, John all design which type of covert channel we will create

  • Chase and John develop necessary infrastructure/backend for covert channel

  • Ian and Noah design the Sender of covert channel

  • Ian and Noah design the Receiver of covert channel

  • Chase and John develop tests for detecting the covert channel

  • Chase and John develop tests for using the covert channel

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all document their initial research

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all document the framework

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all document how we used the framework to build our example covert channel

  • Ian, Noah, John, Chase all help write final paper

Project Timeline

  • Research Phase (01/01/2022 - 01/20/2022)
  • Framework Building Phase (01/20/2022 - 02/10/2022)
  • Covert Channel Example Phase (02/10/2022 - 03/25/2022)
  • Write Up Phase (03/25/2022 - 04/12/2022)

SlideShow

Link to Project Slide Show

Self-Assessment Essays

Link to Self Assessments

Professional Biographies

Link to Professional Biographies

Budget

We do not have the constraints of a budget. Everything we plan on doing should come without a financial cost.

Appendix

Appendix 1