CAPEC-621

Analysis of Packet Timing and Sizes
Low
Draft
2015-11-09
00h00 +00:00
2018-07-31
00h00 +00:00
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Descriptions CAPEC

An attacker may intercept and log encrypted transmissions for the purpose of analyzing metadata such as packet timing and sizes. Although the actual data may be encrypted, this metadata may reveal valuable information to an attacker. Note that this attack is applicable to VOIP data as well as application data, especially for interactive apps that require precise timing and low-latency (e.g. thin-clients).

Informations CAPEC

Prerequisites

Use of untrusted communication paths enables an attacker to intercept and log communications, including metadata such as packet timing and sizes.

Skills Required

These attacks generally require sophisticated machine learning techniques and require traffic capture as a prerequisite.

Mitigations

Distort packet sizes and timing at VPN layer by adding padding to normalize packet sizes and timing delays to reduce information leakage via timing.

Related Weaknesses

CWE-ID Weakness Name

CWE-201

 Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data
The code transmits data to another actor, but a portion of the data includes sensitive information that should not be accessible to that actor.

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2015-11-09 +00:00

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2018-07-31 +00:00 Updated Attack_Motivation-Consequences