Following my email to this list, dated 29/07/2012, I direct your attention to the IACR eprint document http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/494, "Format-Transforming Encryption: More than Meets the DPI". In it, we present our framework for steganographic encoding of messages using regular languages, along with initial findings for a Python/C++ based implementation.
To briefly highlight some of the main things we deliver:
* A record-layer, powered by format-transforming encryption, that can tunnel arbitrary SOCKS streams.
* Algorithms that allow efficient and invertible mapping between bit strings and elements of a regular language L. These allow us to encode traditional encryptions of plaintexts into strings from L in a way that maximizes the number of bits that are encoded.
* A framework for the creation of good regular languages, "good" with respect to performance and security. In particular, our language-learning framework produces sets of regular expressions (compact representations of the languages) that are learned from real traffic. Our system also allows you to use off-the-shelf regular expressions, like those from appid [1] and l7-filter [2] that are designed to detect HTTP traffic.
We consider this preliminary technical report on a work-in-progress. In fact, we can already do more than what is reported (e.g. greater variety of languages, better system performance), but we will save these advances for a future release.
Cheers, Kevin P Dyer (and his co-authors)
[1] http://code.google.com/p/appid/ [2] http://l7-filter.sourceforge.net/
On Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 09:25:58AM -0700, Kevin P Dyer wrote:
Following my email to this list, dated 29/07/2012, I direct your attention to the IACR eprint document http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/494, "Format-Transforming Encryption: More than Meets the DPI". In it, we present our framework for steganographic encoding of messages using regular languages, along with initial findings for a Python/C++ based implementation.
Is there published source code for the implementation?
David Fifield
On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 3:30 PM, David Fifield david@bamsoftware.com wrote:
On Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 09:25:58AM -0700, Kevin P Dyer wrote:
Following my email to this list, dated 29/07/2012, I direct your attention to the IACR eprint document http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/494, "Format-Transforming Encryption: More than Meets the DPI". In it, we present our framework for steganographic encoding of messages using regular languages, along with initial findings for a Python/C++ based implementation.
Is there published source code for the implementation?
The source is not publicly available, yet. Some of the main system components are still being reworked to support more capabilities and better overall performance. We do, however, plan to make the source available in the medium-term.
At this point, we would love feedback from the Tor development community on our approach and techniques. While Tor is not the only application for FTE, we certainly consider it a key one. We'll happily consider your feedback as we move forward.
-Kevin P Dyer
On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 09:39:45AM -0700, Kevin P Dyer wrote:
On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 3:30 PM, David Fifield david@bamsoftware.com wrote:
On Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 09:25:58AM -0700, Kevin P Dyer wrote:
Following my email to this list, dated 29/07/2012, I direct your attention to the IACR eprint document http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/494, "Format-Transforming Encryption: More than Meets the DPI". In it, we present our framework for steganographic encoding of messages using regular languages, along with initial findings for a Python/C++ based implementation.
Is there published source code for the implementation?
The source is not publicly available, yet. Some of the main system components are still being reworked to support more capabilities and better overall performance. We do, however, plan to make the source available in the medium-term.
Between releasing source code early, and polishing and optimizing it for some time in the future, let mine be a humble vote for releasing code early. You may be glad you did. There are probably others like me, who think the idea is sound enough, and want to try it out and gauge its deployability. There are probably some here who would be willing to put an FTE server transport plugin on a public relay.
David Fifield