SCONeP: Steganography and Cryptography approach for UDP and ICMP

Network steganography describes all the methods used for transmitting data over a network without it being detected. Several methods for hiding data in a network have been proposed, but the main drawback of most of them is that they do not offer a secondary layer of protection. If steganography is detected, the data is in plain text. This article proposes an implementation called SCONeP (Steganography and Cryptography over Network Protocols) that offers the protection of hidden data by encrypting it. Furthermore, it describes two less utilized protocols for data hiding, ICMP and UDP, and presents the performance of two scenarios that use SCONeP, in comparison to other steganography tools. Finally, a proof-of-concept active warden used for preventing network steganography is described.