A survey of covert channels and countermeasures in computer network protocols
The work
| Authors | Sebastian Zander; Grenville Armitage; Philip Branch |
|---|---|
| Editors | |
| Type | article |
| Year | 2007 |
| Citekey | zander2007survey |
Where it appeared
| Published in | IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 44--57 |
Identifiers
| DOI | 10.1109/comst.2007.4317620 |
|---|
Access
Related
| Distinct from | zander2007covert Same authors, same year, same subject, and the shorter record says outright what the relation is: zander2007covert's first page carries an editor's note stating it is REPRINTED FROM IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS AND TUTORIALS, chosen from the third quarter 2007 issue to be featured in IEEE Communications Magazine, 'with the original format shortened for the magazine'. So zander2007survey is the full survey and zander2007covert is the abridged magazine reprint of it, at 7 pages. Cite the survey for substance; the reprint is the same work minus material. Neither reprint-of nor superseded-by fits an abridgement, which is why this stays distinct-from with the explanation here. |
|---|---|
| Distinct from | zander2007covert |
Abstract
Covert channels are used for the secret transfer of information. Encryption only protects communication from being decoded by unauthorised parties, whereas covert channels aim to hide the very existence of the communication. Initially, covert channels were identified as a security threat on monolithic systems i.e. mainframes. More recently focus has shifted towards covert channels in computer network protocols. The huge amount of data and vast number of different protocols in the Internet seems ideal as a high-bandwidth vehicle for covert communication. This article is a survey of the existing techniques for creating covert channels in widely deployed network and application protocols. We also give an overview of common methods for their detection, elimination, and capacity limitation, required to improve security in future computer networks.
A copy is held
pdf, 230.4 kB. Not published — it may be under copyright. The facts and links here are.
How it got here
| How it got here | agent via crossref |
|---|---|
| Added | 2026-08-21 00:00 UTC |
| Approved by | a person 2026-08-26 14:44 UTC |
Filed under
Cite it as
@article{zander2007survey,
title = {A survey of covert channels and countermeasures in computer network protocols},
author = {Sebastian Zander and Grenville Armitage and Philip Branch},
year = {2007},
journal = {IEEE Communications Surveys \& Tutorials},
publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers},
volume = {9},
number = {3},
pages = {44--57},
doi = {10.1109/comst.2007.4317620},
}
This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/zander2007survey/ and will keep doing so.