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SkypeLine: Robust Hidden Data Transmission for VoIP

Authors:

Katharina Kohls,

Dorothea Kolossa,

Christina PöpperAuthors Info & Claims

ASIA CCS '16: Proceedings of the 11th ACM on Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security

Pages 877 - 888

https://doi.org/10.1145/2897845.2897913

Published: 30 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Internet censorship is used in many parts of the world to prohibit free access to online information. Different techniques such as IP address or URL blocking, DNS hijacking, or deep packet inspection are used to block access to specific content on the Internet. In response, several censorship circumvention systems were proposed that attempt to bypass existing filters. Especially systems that hide the communication in different types of cover protocols attracted a lot of attention. However, recent research results suggest that this kind of covert traffic can be easily detected by censors. In this paper, we present SkypeLine, a censorship circumvention system that leverages Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) based steganography to hide information in Voice-over-IP (VoIP) communication. SkypeLine introduces two novel modulation techniques that hide data by modulating information bits on the voice carrier signal using pseudo-random, orthogonal noise sequences and repeating the spreading operation several times. Our design goals focus on undetectability in presence of a strong adversary and improved data rates. As a result, the hiding is inconspicuous, does not alter the statistical characteristics of the carrier signal, and is robust against alterations of the transmitted packets. We demonstrate the performance of SkypeLine based on two simulation studies that cover the theoretical performance and robustness. Our measurements demonstrate that the data rates achieved with our techniques substantially exceed existing DSSS approaches. Furthermore, we prove the real-world applicability of the presented system with an exemplary prototype for Skype.

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Cited By

Yanming ZKejiang CJinyang DWeiming ZNenghai Y(2024)RoCC:robust covert communication based on cross-modal information retrievalJournal of Image and Graphics10.11834/jig.23050429:2(369-381)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.11834/jig.230504
Chen ZZhu LJiang PZhang CGao FGuo F(2024)Exploring Unobservable Blockchain-Based Covert Channel for Censorship-Resistant SystemsIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2024.336121219(3380-3394)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3361212
Correia MRodrigues L(2023)Security and PrivacyMultidisciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the Law10.1007/978-3-031-41264-6_5(81-101)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41264-6_5
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Index Terms

SkypeLine: Robust Hidden Data Transmission for VoIP

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Information & Contributors

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ASIA CCS '16: Proceedings of the 11th ACM on Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security

May 2016

958 pages

ISBN:9781450342339

DOI:10.1145/2897845

General Chair:
Xiaofeng Chen
Xidian University, China
,
Program Chairs:
XiaoFeng Wang
Indiana University at Bloomington, USA
,
Xinyi Huang
Fujian Normal University, China

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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SIGSAC: ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit, and Control

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Published: 30 May 2016

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ASIA CCS '16

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ASIA CCS '16: ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security

May 30 - June 3, 2016

Xi'an, China

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ASIA CCS '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 73 of 350 submissions, 21%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 418 of 2,322 submissions, 18%

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Cited By

Yanming ZKejiang CJinyang DWeiming ZNenghai Y(2024)RoCC:robust covert communication based on cross-modal information retrievalJournal of Image and Graphics10.11834/jig.23050429:2(369-381)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.11834/jig.230504
Chen ZZhu LJiang PZhang CGao FGuo F(2024)Exploring Unobservable Blockchain-Based Covert Channel for Censorship-Resistant SystemsIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2024.336121219(3380-3394)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3361212
Correia MRodrigues L(2023)Security and PrivacyMultidisciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the Law10.1007/978-3-031-41264-6_5(81-101)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41264-6_5
Figueira GBarradas DSantos NSuga YSakurai KDing XSako K(2022)StegozoaProceedings of the 2022 ACM on Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security10.1145/3488932.3517419(1154-1167)Online publication date: 30-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3488932.3517419
Iv JGeorgiou MMalozemoff AShrimpton T(2022)Security Foundations for Application-Based Covert Communication Channels2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)10.1109/SP46214.2022.9833752(1971-1986)Online publication date: May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46214.2022.9833752
Sheikh MPeng Y(2022)Procedures, Criteria, and Machine Learning Techniques for Network Traffic Classification: A SurveyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.318113510(61135-61158)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3181135
Barradas DSantos NRodrigues LNunes VLigatti JOu XKatz JVigna G(2020)Poking a Hole in the Wall: Efficient Censorship-Resistant Internet Communications by Parasitizing on WebRTCProceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security10.1145/3372297.3417874(35-48)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3372297.3417874
Ahlawat ADu W(2020)TruzCall: Secure VoIP Calling on Android using ARM TrustZone2020 Sixth International Conference on Mobile And Secure Services (MobiSecServ)10.1109/MobiSecServ48690.2020.9042945(1-12)Online publication date: Feb-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/MobiSecServ48690.2020.9042945
Salman OElhajj IKayssi AChehab A(2020)A review on machine learning–based approaches for Internet traffic classificationAnnals of Telecommunications10.1007/s12243-020-00770-775:11-12(673-710)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-020-00770-7
Deepikaa SSaravanan R(2019)VoIP Steganography Methods, a SurveyCybernetics and Information Technologies10.2478/cait-2019-000419:1(73-87)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2019
https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2019-0004
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