Journal of Computer Applications ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (7): 2079-2091.DOI: 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2024070972

• The 39th CCF National Conference of Computer Applications (CCF NCCA 2024) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Survey of DNS tunneling detection technology research

Zhiqiang ZHENG1, Ruiqi WANG2,3, Zijing FAN3,4, Famei HE5(), Yepeng YAO3,4, Qiuyun WANG3,4, Zhengwei JIANG3,4   

  1. 1.Information Engineering College,Capital Normal University,Beijing 100048,China
    2.School of Big Data and Computer Science,Guizhou Normal University,Guiyang Guizhou 550025,China
    3.Institute of Information Engineering,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100085,China
    4.School of Cyber Security,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China
    5.Library,Beijing Institute of Technology,Beijing 100081,China
  • Received:2024-07-10 Revised:2024-10-09 Accepted:2024-10-09 Online:2025-07-10 Published:2025-07-10
  • Contact: Famei HE
  • About author:ZHENG Zhiqiang, born in 1999, M. S. candidate. His research interests include encrypted traffic classification, malicious traffic identification.
    WANG Ruiqi, born in 1996, M. S. His research interests include traffic analysis, anomaly detection.
    FAN Zijing, born in 1990, Ph. D., assistant research fellow. Her research interests include artificial intelligence security.
    HE Famei, born in 1972, Ph. D., associate research librarian. His research interests include cyber security.
    YAO Yepeng, born in 1987, Ph. D., associate research fellow. His research interests include cyber threat analysis and detection.
    WANG Qiuyun, born in 1987, Ph. D., senior engineer. His research interests include advanced threat detection and analysis, malicious code and malicious communication detection and analysis.
    JIANG Zhengwei, born in 1985, Ph. D., professor/senior engineer. His research interests include cyber threat analysis, network attack and defense confrontation.

DNS隧道检测技术研究综述

郑智强1, 王锐棋2,3, 范子静3,4, 何发镁5(), 姚叶鹏3,4, 汪秋云3,4, 姜政伟3,4   

  1. 1.首都师范大学 信息工程学院,北京 100048
    2.贵州师范大学 大数据与计算机科学学院,贵阳 550025
    3.中国科学院 信息工程研究所,北京 100085
    4.中国科学院大学 网络空间安全学院,北京 100049
    5.北京理工大学 图书馆,北京 100081
  • 通讯作者: 何发镁
  • 作者简介:郑智强(1999—),男,辽宁大连人,硕士研究生,主要研究方向:加密流量分类、恶意流量识别
    王锐棋(1996—),男,河南洛阳人,硕士,主要研究方向:流量分析、异常检测
    范子静(1990—),女,河南洛阳人,助理研究员,博士,主要研究方向:人工智能安全
    何发镁(1972—),男,四川盐亭人,副研究馆员,博士,主要研究方向:网络安全 hefm@bit.edu.cn
    姚叶鹏(1987—),男,河北邢台人,副研究员,博士,主要研究方向:网络威胁分析与发现
    汪秋云(1987—),男,广东茂名人,高级工程师,博士,主要研究方向:高级威胁检测与分析、恶意代码与恶意通信检测与分析
    姜政伟(1985—),男,湖南郴州人,教授/正高级工程师,博士,CCF会员,主要研究方向:网络威胁分析、网络攻防对抗。

Abstract:

As a system that converts IP addresses and domain names to each other, Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the important basic protocols in Internet. Due to the importance of DNS in Internet, the security policies of some security facilities such as firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) allow DNS traffic to pass by default, giving attackers the opportunity to use DNS tunneling for communication. Currently, there are many malware that support DNS communication or even use DNS communication by default, which brings great challenges to network security tools and security operations centers. However, the existing research mainly focuses on specific detection methods and rarely explores the tunneling tools themselves, even though the majority of researchers rely on tunneling tools to generate samples. Therefore, the research on DNS tunnel detection technology was reviewed. Firstly, the development history and research status and the existing detection schemes of DNS tunneling were elaborated systematically, and the advantages and disadvantages of detection methods in the past 10 years were discussed. Subsequently, 6 commonly used tools in these detection schemes such as dnscat2, Iodine, and dns2tcp were evaluated and tested, and the experimental data was published. Experimental results show that most detection schemes do not disclose their tunneling sample datasets or the set parameters when using tunneling tools to generate traffic, making these schemes almost impossible to reproduce. Besides, some detection solutions use DNS tunneling tools with distinctive signature characteristics. Using samples with signature features to train model-based detection schemes will lead to doubts about the generalization ability of the model, that is, it is impossible to know whether this type of model will perform well in the real world. Finally, related future work development directions were prospected.

Key words: Domain Name System (DNS) tunneling, covert communication, tunneling tool, tunneling communication detection, tunneling detection feature, tunneling tool evaluation

摘要:

域名系统(DNS)作为将IP地址和域名互相转换的系统,是互联网中的重要基础协议之一。由于DNS在互联网中的重要性,一些安全设施如防火墙和入侵检测系统(IDS)等的安全策略默认允许DNS流量通过,这给了攻击者利用DNS隧道进行通信的机会。目前,已经有许多恶意软件支持DNS通信,甚至默认使用DNS通信,这为网络安全工具和安全运营中心带来了很大的挑战。然而,现有的研究主要聚焦于具体的检测方法,即使绝大部分研究者在他们的研究中依赖隧道工具生成样本,却很少对隧道工具本身进行探索。因此,对DNS隧道检测技术研究进行综述。首先,系统阐述DNS隧道的发展历史、研究现状和现有的检测方案,并对过去10年中的检测方案的优缺点进行探讨。其次,对检测方案中常见的dnscat2、Iodine和dns2tcp等6种通信工具进行评估与实验,并公开实验数据。实验结果表明,绝大多数检测方案都没有公开它们的隧道样本数据集或使用隧道工具生成流量时所设定的参数,使这些检测方案很难复现。此外,部分检测方案使用的DNS隧道工具具有明显签名特征,而使用具有签名特征的样本对基于模型的检测方案进行训练将导致模型的泛化能力存疑,即无从得知这一类模型在真实世界中是否具有良好表现。最后,展望相关未来的工作方向。

关键词: DNS隧道, 隐蔽通信, 隧道工具, 隧道通信检测, 隧道检测特征, 隧道工具评估

CLC Number: