Systems and methods for detecting covert channels structured in internet protocol transactions

Abstract

The disclosed computer-implemented method for detecting covert channels structured in Internet Protocol (IP) transactions may include (1) intercepting an IP transaction including textual data and a corresponding address, (2) evaluating the textual data against a model to determine a difference score, (3) determining that the textual data is suspicious when the difference score exceeds a threshold value associated with the model, (4) examining, upon determining that the textual data is suspicious, the address in the transaction to determine whether the address is invalid, (5) analyzing the transaction to determine a frequency of address requests that have been initiated from a source address over a predetermined period, and (6) identifying the transaction as a covert data channel for initiating a malware attack when the address is determined to be invalid and the frequency of the address requests exceeds a threshold value. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.