Covert channel by exploiting error-correcting codes

Covert channels, enabling concealed communication within seemingly innocuous data streams, pose significant challenges to traditional information security measures. This paper presents a novel method for constructing covert channels by leveraging Error-Correcting Codes (ECCs) and minimal-weight codewords. Adversaries embed their covert messages within the benign traffic of unsuspecting victims, carefully controlling the introduced errors to avoid detection. The proposed approach not only ensures the security and reliability of covert communication but also provides protection against channel errors. By integrating ECCs and minimal-weight codewords, our method offers an advanced level of stealth, data integrity, and resilience. Extensive simulations validate the feasibility and performance of the approach, highlighting its potential for practical implementation in real-world scenarios. This research opens new avenues for the construction of covert channels, enhancing information hiding capabilities and reinforcing communication security in the face of ever-evolving threats. 2 2 The material in this paper was presented in part at IEEE DRCN 2024, winning a Best Paper Award.