HTML5 Zero Configuration Covert Channels: Security Risks and Challenges
This work addresses cybersecurity challenges for corporate and governmental entities by examining the forensic implications of encrypted P2P services, though it is incremental as it builds on existing risk analysis in the field.
The paper analyzes the security risks posed by peer-to-peer file transfer services that use end-to-end encryption, highlighting their potential for criminal use due to ease of transfer and lack of central oversight, and discusses forensic investigation methods to address these threats.
In recent months there has been an increase in the popularity and public awareness of secure, cloudless file transfer systems. The aim of these services is to facilitate the secure transfer of files in a peer-to- peer (P2P) fashion over the Internet without the need for centralised authentication or storage. These services can take the form of client installed applications or entirely web browser based interfaces. Due to their P2P nature, there is generally no limit to the file sizes involved or to the volume of data transmitted - and where these limitations do exist they will be purely reliant on the capacities of the systems at either end of the transfer. By default, many of these services provide seamless, end-to-end encryption to their users. The cybersecurity and cyberforensic consequences of the potential criminal use of such services are significant. The ability to easily transfer encrypted data over the Internet opens up a range of opportunities for illegal use to cybercriminals requiring minimal technical know-how. This paper explores a number of these services and provides an analysis of the risks they pose to corporate and governmental security. A number of methods for the forensic investigation of such transfers are discussed.