English

Browser-Based Covert Data Exfiltration

Cryptography and Security 2010-04-27 v1

Abstract

Current best practices heavily control user permissions on network systems. This effectively mitigates many insider threats regarding the collection and exfiltration of data. Many methods of covert communication involve crafting custom packets, typically requiring both the necessary software and elevated privileges on the system. By exploiting the functionality of a browser, covert channels for data exfiltration may be created without additional software or user privileges. This paper explores novel methods of using a browser's JavaScript engine to exfiltrate documents over the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol without sending less covert Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1004.4357,
  title  = {Browser-Based Covert Data Exfiltration},
  author = {Kenton Born},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.4357},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

In Proceedings of the 9th Annual Security Conference, Las Vegas, NV, April 7-8, 2010

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:14:31.369Z