Stego-Punk is a research group on information security with a special focus on Internet censorship circumvention and fundamental aspects of cyber security (e.g., terminology, taxonomy, methodology). Partially, we also conduct research on the security of building/home automation systems and human aspects of information security.

Members

Selected Projects

Funded projects: see here

Selected Publications

Wendzel S, Schmidbauer T, Zillien S, Keller J (2024) DYST (Did You See That?): An Amplified Covert Channel That Points To Previously Seen Data, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), in press, DOI: 10.1109/TDSC.2024.3410679

Zillien S, Schmidbauer T, Kubek M, Keller J, Wendzel S (2024) Look What’s There! Utilizing the Internet’s Existing Data for Censorship Circumvention with OPPRESSION, In: 19th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (AsiaCCS 2024). pp. 80-95, ACM, DOI: 10.1145/3634737.3637676

Zillien S, Petrov D, Ruffing P, Gross F (2024) A Development Framework for TCP/IP Network Steganography Malware Detection, In: 12th ACM Workshop on Information Hiding and Multimedia Security (IH&MMSec 2024). ACM, DOI 10.1145/3658664.3659651

Zillien S, Wendzel S (2023) Weaknesses of popular and recent covert channel detection methods and a remedy. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC). 20/6:5156–5167, DOI: 10.1109/TDSC.2023.3241451

Lenz J, Bozakov Z, Wendzel S, Vrhovec S (2023) Why People Replace their Aging Smart Devices: A Push–Pull–Mooring Perspective. Computers & Security (COSE) 130:103258, DOI: 10.1016/j.cose.2023.103258

Wendzel S, Caviglione L, Mazurczyk W (2023) Avoiding research tribal wars using taxonomies. IEEE Computer 56/1:93–96. IEEE, DOI: 10.1109/MC.2022.3218175

Wendzel S, Schmidbauer T, Zillien S, Keller J (2022) Did You See That? A Covert Channel Exploiting Recent Legitimate Traffic, DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2212.11850

Wendzel S, Caviglione L, Mazurczyk W, Mileva A, Dittmann J, Krätzer C, Lamshöft K, Vielhauer C, Hartmann L, Keller J, Neubert T, Zillien S (2022) A Generic Taxonomy for Steganography Methods, DOI: 10.36227/techrxiv.20215373

Schmidbauer T, Wendzel S (2022) SoK: A Survey Of Indirect Network-level Covert Channels. In: 17th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (AsiaCCS 2022). ACM, pp 546–560, DOI: 10.1145/3488932.3517418. Acceptance rate: 18.4%

Mileva A, Velinov A, Hartmann L, Wendzel S, Mazurczyk W (2021) Comprehensive analysis of MQTT 5.0 susceptibility to network covert channels. Computers & Security (COSE) 104:102207. Elsevier, DOI: 10.1016/j.cose.2021.102207

Zillien S, Wendzel S (2021) Reconnection-Based Covert Channels in Wireless Networks. In: ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection (IFIP SEC 2021). Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 118–133, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-78120-0_8.

Wendzel S, Lévy-Bencheton C, Caviglione L (2020) Not all Areas are Equal: Analysis of Citations in Information Security Research. Scientometrics 122/1:267–286. Springer, DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03279-6

Mazurczyk W, Wendzel S, Chourib M, Keller J (2019) Countering adaptive network covert communication with dynamic wardens. Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) 94:712–725. Elsevier, DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2018.12.047

Mazurczyk W, Wendzel S (2018) Information Hiding – Challenges for Forensic Experts. Communications of the ACM (CACM) 61/1:86–94. ACM, DOI: 10.1145/3158416

Zillien S, Wendzel S (2018) Detection of covert channels in TCP retransmissions. In: 23rd Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems (NordSec 2018). Springer, pp 203–218, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-03638-6_13

Keidel R, Wendzel S, Zillien S, Conner ES, Haas G (2018) WoDiCoF – A Testbed for the Evaluation of (Parallel) Covert Channel Detection Algorithms. Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS) 24/5:556–576, DOI: 10.3217/jucs-024-05-0556

Caviglione L, Wendzel S, Mazurczyk W (2017) The Future of Digital Forensics: Challenges and the Road Ahead. IEEE Security & Privacy (S&P) 15/6:12–17. IEEE, DOI: 10.1109/MSP.2017.4251117

Lehner F, Mazurczyk W, Keller J, Wendzel S (2017) Inter-protocol Steganography for Real-time Services and Its Detection Using Traffic Coloring Approach. In: 42th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2017). IEEE, pp 78–85, DOI: 10.1109/LCN.2017.32

Wendzel S, Tonejc J, Kaur J, Kobekova A (2017) Cyber security of smart buildings. In: Song H, Fink G, Jeschke S (eds) Security and privacy in cyber-physical systems: Foundations and applications. Wiley-IEEE Press, pp 327–352, DOI: 10.1002/9781119226079.ch16

Wendzel S (2016) How to Increase the Security of Smart Buildings. Communications of the ACM (CACM) 59/5:47–49. ACM, DOI: 10.1145/2828636

Wendzel S, Mazurczyk W (2016) Poster: An Educational Network Protocol for Covert Channel Analysis Using Patterns. In: ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2016). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 1739–1741, DOI: 10.1145/2976749.2989037

Wendzel S, Mazurczyk W, Zander S (2016) A Unified Description Method for Network Information Hiding Methods. Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS) 22/11:1456–1486, DOI: 10.3217/jucs-022-11-1456

Mazurczyk W, Wendzel S, Zander S, Houmansadr A, Szczypiorski K (2016) Information hiding in communication networks. Fundamentals, mechanisms, and applications. Wiley-IEEE, DOI: 10.1002/9781119081715. IEEE Series on Information and Communication Networks Security

Wendzel S, Zander S, Fechner B, Herdin C (2015) Pattern-based survey and categorization of network covert channel techniques. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 47/3:1–26. ACM New York, NY, USA, DOI: 10.1145/2684195

Kaur J, Tonejc J, Wendzel S, Meier M (2015) Securing BACnet’s pitfalls. In: 30th IFIP TC-11 International Information Security and Privacy Conference (IFIP SEC 2015). Springer, pp 616–629, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-18467-8_41. Acceptance rate: 19.8%

Wendzel S, Zander S (2012) Detecting protocol switching covert channels. In: 37th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2012). IEEE, pp 280–283, DOI: 10.1109/LCN.2012.6423628

Wendzel S, Keller J (2012) Systematic engineering of control protocols for covert channels. In: IFIP International Conference on Communications and Multimedia Security (CMS 2012). Springer, pp 131–144, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-32805-3_11

Wendzel S, Keller J (2011) Low-attention forwarding for mobile network covert channels. In: Decker et. al. B de (ed) 12th Conference on Communications and Multimedia Security (CMS 2011). IFIP International Federation for Information Processing; Springer, pp 122–133, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-24712-5_10. Acceptance rate: 21.1%