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Abstract
The flexibility and complexity of IPv6 extension headers allow attackers to
create covert channels or bypass security mechanisms, leading to potential data
breaches or system compromises. The mature development of machine learning has
become the primary detection technology option used to mitigate covert
communication threats. However, the complexity of detecting covert
communication, evolving injection techniques, and scarcity of data make
building machine-learning models challenging. In previous related research,
machine learning has shown good performance in detecting covert communications,
but oversimplified attack scenario assumptions cannot represent the complexity
of modern covert technologies and make it easier for machine learning models to
detect covert communications. To bridge this gap, in this study, we analyzed
the packet structure and network traffic behavior of IPv6, used encryption
algorithms, and performed covert communication injection without changing
network packet behavior to get closer to real attack scenarios. In addition to
analyzing and injecting methods for covert communications, this study also uses
comprehensive machine learning techniques to train the model proposed in this
study to detect threats, including traditional decision trees such as random
forests and gradient boosting, as well as complex neural network architectures
such as CNNs and LSTMs, to achieve detection accuracy of over 90\%. This study
details the methods used for dataset augmentation and the comparative
performance of the applied models, reinforcing insights into the adaptability
and resilience of the machine learning application in IPv6 covert
communication. We further introduce a Generative AI-driven script refinement
framework, leveraging prompt engineering as a preliminary exploration of how
generative agents can assist in covert communication detection and model
enhancement.
External Datasets
CAIDA 2019 IPv6 Launch Day Anonymized Internet Traces