Investigating the efficiency of detection methods against network covert timing channels

Network covert timing channels are techniques to covertly transmit information over computer networks, by utilizing the time between subsequent network packets. Previous work on the detection of the various techniques has introduced numerous new methods, with high reported success. From these previous works we have noticed that there is little...

HoPhiDeS: Holistic Phishing Detection Score

From 2019 into 2021, phishing incidents tripled, while phishing was found to be the largest used cyberattack vector. One commonly used type of phishing is a credential phishing attack over email. This is an act where an attacker tries to steal credential information from a target via a phishing website. This phishing website is delivered to the...

Static Analysis of Spam Call Blocking Applications: Common Android APIs Used for Call Interception and Blocking

In order to combat increasing spam calls, many applications are developed and downloaded to block those calls. Some studies about performance of the applications were previously conducted, however, the actual processes the applications go through to intercept and block the spam calls are not well studied. This research presents a method to...

Analysis of components in the manifest file of spam call blocking applications on Android

Spam calls are a widespread problem as people receive about 14 spam calls per month on average. In response, tens of applications are available in Google’s Play Store that aim to block these calls. While these apps have hundreds of millions of installations, there’s a lack of research into these applications. Research has been done on the user...

Dynamic analysis of Android applications to extract spam caller IDs

Spam calls are becoming an increasing problem, with people receiving multiple spam calls per month on average. Multiple Android applications exist that are able to detect spam calls and display a warning or block such calls. Little is known however on how these applications work and what numbers they block.<br/>In this research, the following...

Storage and retrieval mechanisms in mobile spam blocking applications

Applications on Android phones which block spam calls could be argued a necessity for people unfortunate enough to have their number on spam lists. Third-party applications provide exten- sive, up-to-date blocklists to screen incoming calls. This paper analyses and describes how these types of applications store and access their data. First we...

Analysing Android Spam Call Applications: Developing a Methodology For Dynamic Analysis

The aim of this research is to provide a structured approach for dynamically analysing Android applications, focusing on applications that block or flag suspected spam caller IDs. This paper discusses ways to determine how an application stores the data regarding the phone numbers, and what APIs it utilizes. In order to develop a methodology of...

System Call Argument Filtering for Interpreted Languages

Interpreted applications are often vulnerable to remote code execution attacks. To protect interpreted applications, we should reduce the tools available to the attackers. In this thesis, we investigate the possibilities for the automation of policy generation for interpreted applications in terms of system call arguments. These policies are...

Device Type Classification of Internet of Things Devices on Low-End Dedicated Hardware Devices

The uprise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been a hot topic for several years. While many see these devices and think they bring ease to their lives, it is far from reality. Researchers found many privacy and security problems within these devices in the last years. The popularity of these devices causes many users to bring a device into...

Securing BGP Communities: Design of a new RPKI object to mitigate BGP Community Attacks

Research has shown that the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is vulnerable to a new attack that exploits the community attribute. These community attacks can influence BGP routing in unintended ways. Currently, there are no effective mitigations against these attacks which do not limit the normal usage of BGP communities or offer cryptographic...

Automating cyber security advisories: Supervised machine learning for automated decision making

There is an everlasting struggle for organisations to remediate vulnerabilities in IT systems before being the victim of an exploitation. Organisations try to reduce this struggle by turning to specialized cyber organisations, which use their expertise to recommend resolving a subset of vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, the process of recommending...