Blockchain covert communication method based on contract call concealment

doi:10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2024091282

Journal of Computer Applications ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (9): 2865-2872.DOI: 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2024091282

• Cyber security • Previous Articles

Blockchain covert communication method based on contract call concealment

Wei SHE¹^,²^,³^,⁴, Tianxiang MA¹^,⁴, Haige FENG³^,⁴, Zhao TIAN¹^,⁴, Wei LIU¹^,⁴()

^1.School of Cyber Science and Engineering，Zhengzhou University，Zhengzhou Henan 450002，China
^2.Songshan Laboratory，Zhengzhou Henan 450000，China
^3.School of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence，Zhengzhou University，Zhengzhou Henan 450001，China
^4.Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Blockchain and Data Intelligence，Zhengzhou Henan 450000，China

Received:2024-09-13 Revised:2024-11-13 Accepted:2024-11-18 Online:2025-01-13 Published:2025-09-10
Contact: Wei LIU
About author:SHE Wei， born in 1977， Ph. D.， professor. His research interests include blockchain， information security， intelligent systems.
MA Tianxiang， born in 2000， M. S. candidate. His research interests include blockchain， information security.
FENG Haige， born in 2000， M. S. candidate. Her research interests include blockchain， information security.
TIAN Zhao， born in 1985， Ph. D.， associate professor. His research interests include blockchain， information security， smart transportation.
Supported by:
National Key Research and Development Program of China(31703-3);Songshan Laboratory Pre-Research Project(YYYY022022003)

基于合约调用掩盖的区块链隐蔽通信方法

佘维¹^,²^,³^,⁴, 马天祥¹^,⁴, 冯海格³^,⁴, 田钊¹^,⁴, 刘炜¹^,⁴()

^1.郑州大学网络空间安全学院，郑州 450002
^2.嵩山实验室，郑州 450000
^3.郑州大学计算机与人工智能学院，郑州 450001
^4.郑州市区块链与数据智能重点实验室，郑州 450000

通讯作者: 刘炜
作者简介:佘维（1977—），男，湖南常德人，教授，博士生导师，博士，CCF会员，主要研究方向：区块链、信息安全、智能系统
马天祥（2000—），男，河北衡水人，硕士研究生，主要研究方向：区块链、信息安全
冯海格（2000—），女，河南许昌人，硕士研究生，主要研究方向：区块链、信息安全
田钊（1985—），男，河南荥阳人，副教授，博士，主要研究方向：区块链、信息安全、智慧交通
基金资助:
国家重点研发计划项目(31703-3);嵩山实验室预研项目(YYYY022022003)

Abstract

Abstract:

To address the issues of insufficient concealment， long extraction time for hidden information， low hiding capacity， and single application scenarios in the existing blockchain covert communication schemes， a blockchain covert communication method based on Ethereum smart contracts and InterPlanetary File System （IPFS） technology was proposed. Firstly， IPFS was used to store long ciphertexts， and a combination of on-chain and off-chain storage was employed to compensate for the low efficiency and the high cost of blockchain storage. Secondly， by adopting the concepts of derivation relationships and codebooks， the separation of secret information and communication information was achieved， which meant that the on-chain data was index information of the ciphertext hash rather than the ciphertext hash itself， thereby further enhancing security. Thirdly， based on the index information， a suitable smart contract was customized， and the index information was disguised as normal contract call parameters to ensure both concealment and security. Moreover， the data field storage capacity for contract call transactions was relatively large， which could further enhance the information embedding of transactions. Finally， group encryption technology was introduced into the blockchain covert communication model to meet the multi-user interactive scenarios well. Experimental results show that the proposed method can further improve time efficiency and information embedding size， enhances concealment and security greatly， and can be applied to interaction scenarios with multiple receiving users.

Key words: covert communication, blockchain, Ethereum, smart contract, derivation relationship, group encryption

摘要：

为解决现有区块链隐蔽通信方案隐蔽性不足、提取隐蔽信息时间过长、隐藏容量较低和应用场景单一等问题，提出一种基于以太坊智能合约与星际文件系统（IPFS）技术的区块链隐蔽通信方法。首先，使用IPFS存储较长的密文，通过链上链下联合存储弥补区块链存储效率低且成本高的缺点；其次，引用派生关系和密码本的思想实现秘密信息与通信信息的分离，即上链的为密文hash的索引信息而非密文hash本身，进一步增强安全性；再次，根据索引信息自定义适用的智能合约，并将索引信息伪装成正常的合约调用参数，以保证隐蔽性和安全性，而且合约调用交易的数据字段存储容量较大，能进一步提升交易的信息嵌入量；最后，把群加密技术引入区块链隐蔽通信模型中，以很好地满足多用户交互的场景。实验结果表明，所提方法可进一步提高时间效率和信息嵌入量，极大地提升隐蔽性和安全性，并适用于多接收用户的交互场景。

关键词: 隐蔽通信, 区块链, 以太坊, 智能合约, 派生关系, 群加密

CLC Number:

TP309.2

Wei SHE, Tianxiang MA, Haige FENG, Zhao TIAN, Wei LIU. Blockchain covert communication method based on contract call concealment[J]. Journal of Computer Applications, 2025, 45(9): 2865-2872.

佘维, 马天祥, 冯海格, 田钊, 刘炜. 基于合约调用掩盖的区块链隐蔽通信方法[J]. 《计算机应用》唯一官方网站, 2025, 45(9): 2865-2872.

Figures/Tables 13

Fig. 1 Flow of covert communication model

Tab. 1 Symbols and their meanings

符号	含义
sk	私钥
pk	公钥
PSK	预共享密钥
*	椭圆曲线乘法
G	椭圆曲线基点
%	模运算
N	以太坊的私钥空间
PkToAddress	将公钥转换为地址

Fig. 2 Process of sender obtaining derived address

Fig. 3 Process of receiver obtaining derived address

Tab. 2 Derivation experimental data information

参数	值
PSK	69375926616776439840865028561322594413120951981500883129369086777958434004387
$p k 1$	X： 34034161337403082079085279045019236899149482193664265397170049702904939335170 Y： 88686558930908406055837606195802139632932573706436658011216188652396637014323
$a d d r 1$	0x01f048C4bEF3940b19f025D4AcE1EFaA8643Ef44
$a d d r 1 (B a s e 58)$	2Zrc4g9kf2gzqa4UdgGSE7dFVLP
$p k 2$	X： 52088074882902631338395383249328990343875895116481287048671822549806468946266 Y： 47606992547250807204445254349792627778986769842750612817030994525041868759104
$a d d r 2$	0xb0e48db60145Bc6c6794404eAe5cb57248D96f14
$a d d r 2 (B a s e 58)$	3TwHiRLPPmtrMLZXGmvKxVL6ipwd
$⋮$	$⋮$
$p k 10$	X： 84419926613792491670048408013222781808304462775653413957061896001411359150941 Y： 24819529193887969629957964076732434370631500349277475383422348231052062175782
$a d d r 10$	0xE8D4d3E92C67E7ae0f34974483E4d35512293C59
$a d d r 10 (B a s e 58)$	4F8v52shaWx77RATnLYkdZjKeNAt

Tab. 2 Derivation experimental data information

参数	值
PSK	69375926616776439840865028561322594413120951981500883129369086777958434004387
$p k 1$	X： 34034161337403082079085279045019236899149482193664265397170049702904939335170 Y： 88686558930908406055837606195802139632932573706436658011216188652396637014323
$a d d r 1$	0x01f048C4bEF3940b19f025D4AcE1EFaA8643Ef44
$a d d r 1 (B a s e 58)$	2Zrc4g9kf2gzqa4UdgGSE7dFVLP
$p k 2$	X： 52088074882902631338395383249328990343875895116481287048671822549806468946266 Y： 47606992547250807204445254349792627778986769842750612817030994525041868759104
$a d d r 2$	0xb0e48db60145Bc6c6794404eAe5cb57248D96f14
$a d d r 2 (B a s e 58)$	3TwHiRLPPmtrMLZXGmvKxVL6ipwd
$⋮$	$⋮$
$p k 10$	X： 84419926613792491670048408013222781808304462775653413957061896001411359150941 Y： 24819529193887969629957964076732434370631500349277475383422348231052062175782
$a d d r 10$	0xE8D4d3E92C67E7ae0f34974483E4d35512293C59
$a d d r 10 (B a s e 58)$	4F8v52shaWx77RATnLYkdZjKeNAt

Tab. 3 Address codebook information

地址序号	值
1	2Zrc4g9kf2gzqa4UdgGSE7dFVLP
2	3TwHiRLPPmtrMLZXGmvKxVL6ipwd
3	2WNU7oBqZj8yUantJS32S16fgJzk
4	3KCwJBmpCmsfmcpvkzFMjeY2ipxc
5	2FoBtraEaV6TUeCsQMvgKjJrrvMu
6	2MALLkifcZPz537EKt7mpuy7P7Cr
7	47yy7DR8D7VCfGSzR9Tf1jqa6zAH
8	gAkysbExPkCgoNWPSgzjzH7B4Vy
9	4PYvwHEe8p5cRpxziRjbjYmXKbo
10	4F8v52shaWx77RATnLYkdZjKeNAt

Tab. 4 Contract call transaction information

字段

值

交易ID

0x9a848a9bbf62477ae36a6284a01f55b0a32e0613ffb264a

b87d0f9b71244e6ad

交易地址

0x039555ada71e96bDa3aDB90EABA62145f8AEBb4a

Fig. 4 Comparison of embedding rate among different methods

Tab. 5 Comparison of embedding strengths amongdifferent covert communication methods

方法	嵌入强度	方法	嵌入强度
BLOCCE^［9］	1 bit	文献［26］方法	KB级
空格法^［11］	2 bit	双重隐写术^［12］	MB级
BLOCCE+^［10］	α bit	本文方法	MB级
文献［25］方法	256 bit

Tab. 6 Comparison of transaction data field security

交易类型	数据字段	默认	安全性
比特币转账交易	op-return	为空	较低
以太坊转账交易	input data	为空	较低
以太坊调用交易	input data	不为空	较高

Fig. 5 Comparison of transmission time among different methods

Tab. 7 Time comparison among covert communication methods

方法	1 KB数据的传输用时
BLOCCE^［9］	小时级
空格法^［11］	小时级
双重隐写术^［12］	分钟级
本文方法	分钟级

Tab. 8 Comprehensive comparison of covert communication methods

方法	嵌入强度	传输时间/KB	适配多接收用户
BLOCCE^［9］	1 bit	小时级	不适配
BLOCCE+^［10］	α bit	—	不适配
空格法^［11］	2 bit	小时级	不适配
文献［14］方法	28 B	分钟级	不适配
文献［16］方法	4 bit	—	不适配
文献［25］方法	256 bit	—	不适配
文献［26］方法	KB级	—	不适配
双重隐写术^［12］	MB级	分钟级	不适配
本文方法	MB级	分钟级	适配

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Blockchain covert communication method based on contract call concealment

基于合约调用掩盖的区块链隐蔽通信方法

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