A Survey of Steganography Tools at Layers 2-4 and HTTP

Stefano Bistarelli, Michele Ceccarelli, Chiara Luchini, Ivan Mercanti and Francesco Santini
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2023), Benevento, Italy, August 29 - 1 September 1, 2023.
doi: 10.1145/3600160.3605058

Abstract

Steganography has evolved into various forms and remains an effective way to hide sensitive information. Network Steganography, also known as "Covert Channels," is popular in fields such as terrorism and security. As a result, the scientific community created a specific taxonomy to categorize it, and developed several techniques and tools to conceal communication between the parties. In this paper, we have curated a list of available software tools that can be used to create a covert channel at layers 2 to 4 of the ISO/OSI model and related to the HTTP protocol.