Malicious uses of blockchains by malware: from the analysis to Smart-Zephyrus-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Malicious uses of blockchains by malware: from the analysis to Smart-Zephyrus

Published:2023-05-12 Issue:5 Volume:22 Page:1445-1480
ISSN:1615-5262
Container-title:International Journal of Information Security
language:en
Short-container-title:Int. J. Inf. Secur.

Author:

Gimenez-Aguilar Mar^ORCID,de Fuentes Jose Maria^ORCID,Gonzalez-Manzano Lorena^ORCID

Abstract

AbstractThe permanent availability and relative obscurity of blockchains is the perfect ground for using them for malicious purposes. However, the use of blockchains by malwares has not been characterized yet. This paper analyses the current state of the art in this area. One of the lessons learned is that covert communications for malware have received little attention. To foster further defence-oriented research, a novel mechanism (dubbed Smart-Zephyrus) is built leveraging smart contracts written in Solidity. Our results show that it is possible to hide 4 Kb of secret in 41 s. While being expensive (around USD 1.82 per bit), the provided stealthiness might be worth the price for attackers.

Funder

Universidad Carlos III

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Subject

Computer Networks and Communications,Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality,Information Systems,Software

Link

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10207-023-00700-3.pdf

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