An application of deception in cyberspace: Operating system obfuscation

Authors

• Sherry Murphy, USAF
• J. Todd McDonald, Air Force Institute of Technology
• Robert F. Mills, Air Force Institute of Technology

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-8-2010

Abstract

The art of deception has played an integral role in military operations throughout history. In this research we investigate the efficacy of using operating system (OS) obfuscation as a form of deception in the cyber domain. Specifically, we study the effectiveness of host-based OS obfuscation as a way of understanding whether the technique warrants further research and application development before becoming an integral part of Air Force network defense. We accomplish this objective by examining the theoretical foundation of cyber deception and then evaluating a specific OS obfuscation tool against selected OS fingerprinting tools. The results from our experiment show that current OS obfuscation tools are developed enough to consistently mask OS information on systems running a Windows OS.

Comments

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Source Publication

5th International Conference on Information Warfare and Security

Recommended Citation

Kovach, N., & Mullins, B. E. (2010). Malware detection via a graphics processing unit. 5th International Conference on Information Warfare and Security, 212–215. ProQuest (869617237).