Stateless TCP Connection Verification for Full-Port Honeypots
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing low-interaction honeypots are limited in their ability to monitor network traffic on all ports due to memory and processing overhead, as they require significant system resources to track and store the states of TCP connections, restricting their capacity to handle high volumes of network traffic.
Innovation Solution
Implementing stateless TCP connections that track the states of TCP connections through sequence numbers exchanged between the server and client, eliminating the need for local storage of state information, allowing monitoring of all ports associated with an IP address without allocating sockets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional TCP connection tracking is implemented in honeypots, then connection state monitoring capability is improved, but memory and processing overhead increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the TCP state tracking function from the honeypot system and relocates it to the client device. The honeypot only needs to verify sequence numbers against logged values rather than maintaining full connection state, significantly reducing memory and processing requirements while preserving monitoring capability
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the server tracking connection state and verifying client messages, the patent inverts the approach by having the client track state and the server verify using sequence numbers. This reversal allows the honeypot to operate with minimal resources while maintaining security monitoring
2Adaptability or versatility
If honeypots monitor all ports associated with an IP address, then network traffic coverage is improved, but system resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the heavy state tracking burden from the honeypot and places it on the client side. The honeypot only performs lightweight sequence number verification, enabling it to monitor all ports simultaneously without proportionally increasing resource consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses disposable sequence number verification rather than persistent connection state maintenance. Each connection state is tracked locally on the client and only minimal verification data is retained on the server, allowing high-volume port monitoring with low overhead
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes receiving a first message from a client device requesting an establishment of a transmission control protocol connection, wherein the first message contains a first sequence number for the transmission control protocol connection, calculating, based on the first sequence number and a first integer from a list of a plurality of randomly generated integers, a second sequence number for the transmission control protocol connection, sending a second message to the client device in response to the first message, wherein the second message contains the second sequence number, receiving a fourth message containing an acknowledgement number, extracting a second integer from the acknowledgement number, determining whether the fourth message originated with the client device by comparing the second integer to the first integer, and sending a fifth message to the client device, wherein a type of the fifth message is selected based on an outcome of the determining.