Testing deceptive honeypots

View/ Open
Author
Yahyaoui, Aymen
Date
2014-09Advisor
Rowe, Neil C.
Second Reader
Fulp, J. D.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Deception can be a useful defensive technique against cyber attacks. It has the advantage of unexpectedness to attackers and offers a variety of tactics. Honeypots are a good tool for deception. They act as decoy computers to confuse attackers and exhaust their time and resources. The objective of this thesis was to test the effectiveness of some honeypot tools in real networks by varying their location and virtualization, and by adding more deception to them. We tested both a web honeypot tool and an SSH honeypot tool. We deployed the web honeypot in both a residential network and at the Naval Postgraduate School network; the NPS honeypot attracted more attackers. Results also showed that the virtual honeypots received attacks from more unique IP addresses, and that adding deception to the web honeypot generated more interest by attackers. For the purpose of comparison, we used examined log files of a legitimate website www.cmand.org. The traffic distributions for the web honeypot and the legitimate website showed similarities, but the SSH honeypot was different. It appears that both honeypot tools are useful for providing intelligence about cyber-attack methods.
Description
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Deception using an SSH honeypot
McCaughey, Ryan J. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2017-09);The number of devices vulnerable to unauthorized cyber access has been increasing at an alarming rate. A honeypot can deceive attackers trying to gain unauthorized access to a system; studying their interactions with ... -
Defending Cyberspace with Fake Honeypots
Rowe, Neil C.; Custy, E. John; Duong, Binh T. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2007);Honeypots are computer systems designed for no purpose other than recording attacks on them. Cyber-attackers avoid them since honeypots jeopardize the secrecy of attack methods and it is hard to launch attacks from them. ... -
Fake Honeypots: A Defensive Tactic for Cyberspace
Rowe, Neil C.; Duong, Binh T.; Custy, E. John (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2006-06);Cyber-attackers are becoming more aware of honeypots. They generally want to avoid honeypots since it is hard to spread attacks from them, attacks are thoroughly monitored on them, and some honeypots contain planted false ...