Understanding and Utilizing Honeypots for Advanced Cyber Defense
Computer security assets are under constant attack in an ongoing battle against cyber criminals. Cyber defenders must develop mechanisms to protect against the multitude of attacks that continuously evolve as our digital connectivity increases. Additionally, it is crucial to understand how these attacks are executed to build a more robust protection system. A wide range of security tools, such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and firewalls, already play significant roles in this defensive effort.
In addition to these tools, honeypots can significantly enhance overall security. Honeypots act as both intrusion detection systems and learning systems, providing insights into attacker behavior and techniques. By attracting and engaging with attackers, honeypots gather valuable data that helps organizations understand and counteract evolving cyber threats more effectively.
What are Honeypots?
A honeypot is a security mechanism set up as a decoy or trap to deceive cyber criminals or hackers. It is designed to appear as the actual system, enticing cyber criminals to exploit it. These systems are completely isolated from production environments and are closely monitored by cyber defenders.
Imagine you have a bag of chocolates locked in your drawer that you don’t want anyone to take without your permission. You suspect that one of your brothers might be sneaking some chocolates when you’re not around. To catch him and understand how he’s doing it, you place a new bag that looks like the original but contains fake chocolates. You then set up a hidden camera or sit nearby where you can secretly observe what happens. If he tries to sneak into the drawer, he’ll go for the fake bag of chocolates. Consequently, you’ll learn who he is and how he sneaks your chocolates. By understanding his actions, you can figure out how to stop him from sneaking chocolates in the future.
It’s important to note that honeypots do not block specific intrusions or the transmission of viruses or worms.
Purpose of Honeypots
By engaging with attackers, honeypots provide valuable insights into their methods, allowing organizations to have extra time to react to attacks, that could potentially cause unauthorized access to real information systems. This proactive approach helps enhance overall security and improve incident response strategies.
Types of Honeypots
Honeypots can be classified into two main categories:
1. Based on Interaction Levels
2. Based on Purpose
The level of interaction dictates the degree of engagement or the number of services on the honeypot that we want the cyber criminal to interact with. The purpose, however, refers to the intended objective of the honeypot within the cybersecurity strategy.
1. Honeypots Based on the Level of Interaction
Low-Level Interaction
Low-level interaction honeypots emulate a small number of services to deceive cyber criminal. These honeypots offer limited interaction, meaning that attackers cannot engage deeply with the system. This results in fewer resource requirements and easier maintenance. However, the basic emulation of services like FTP, SSH, and other TCP/UDP protocols may not be compelling enough for attackers to fully engage, thus limiting the amount of valuable information collected.
Examples: Honeyd, KFSensor, Glutton & LaBrea.
Medium-Level Interaction
Medium-level interaction honeypots offer more advanced interactions than low-level ones by emulating a wider range of services and applications, though not the full spectrum. This allows attackers to engage more deeply with the system, providing valuable insights into their techniques.
Examples: Cowrie, Dionaea, Kippo & Artillery.
High-Level Interaction
High-level interaction honeypots fully emulate entire systems and their functions. This approach helps defenders thoroughly study and capture the activities performed by attackers, including potential zero-day attacks. However, deploying such honeypots in large environments consumes significant resources and requires continuous updates to maintain credibility. Despite their effectiveness in understanding cybercriminal behaviour and developing new security solutions, these honeypots pose the highest risk. If attackers exploit them, they might use the same techniques to compromise production systems. Therefore, defenders must be extremely careful and vigilant when using high-level interaction honeypots.
Examples: Specter, KFSensor, Sebek & HoneyPLC.
2. Honeypots Based on the Purpose
Research Honeypots
Designed to gather information on the techniques attackers use, helping analysts understand new attacks and trends. Primarily used by academics and cybersecurity professionals, these honeypots contribute to the development of new defence mechanisms and the broader understanding of cyber threats. Due to their extensive monitoring capabilities and the detailed analysis required, research honeypots demand significant resources and expertise to deploy and manage effectively.
Example: Honeynet Project.
Production Honeypots
Deployed within a business’s operational environment. Their primary purpose is to detect immediate threats, respond to incidents, and enhance the security posture of the organization. By observing the techniques attackers use in a real-world setting, these honeypots help identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited within the operational systems, enabling quicker threat detection and response.
Example: Deployed within business networks to safeguard against actual threats
These honeypots serve different purposes but are both essential for comprehensive cybersecurity strategies, providing insights into attacker behavior and enhancing defensive measures.
Advantages of Honeypots
1. Valuable Information for Security Improvement:
By collecting data from honeypots, cyber defenders can gain useful insights to enhance the overall security posture and conduct forensic investigations.
2. Reduction of False Positives:
Since honeypots are designed to attract no legitimate traffic, any interaction is likely to be malicious, thereby reducing the number of false positives.
3. Simplicity and Cost-Effectiveness:
Honeypots do not require frequent updates or the implementation of preventive measures since they are intentionally vulnerable. Additionally, any computer can be converted into a honeypot, making them cost-effective and easy to deploy.
Disadvantages of Honeypots
1. Limited Scope: Honeypots only capture attacks directed specifically at them. If another system within the network is attacked, the honeypot will not detect or capture information about that attack.
2. Honeypot Fingerprinting: Skilled attackers may be able to identify honeypots and avoid them. This reduces the effectiveness of honeypots and can potentially lead to attackers feeding false information to defenders.
3. Resource Intensive: on High-interaction honeypots require significant resources to maintain and monitor. The deployment and management can be complex and time-consuming, necessitating dedicated personnel and infrastructure.
Honeypots Deployment Locations
DMZ (Demilitarized Zone): Place honeypots in the DMZ to detect external threats attempting to penetrate your defenses.
Internal Network: Deploy honeypots within the internal network to detect internal threats and lateral movement.
Additionally, honeypots can be integrated with SIEMs (Security Information and Event Management systems) to centralize and analyses alerts.
Reasons to Use Honeypots
1. Forensic analysis: Using the data gathered from honeypot interactions, which can help with the investigation of security incidents and the comprehension of attack techniques.
2. Improving Security Posture: Honeypots can provide insights into how attackers operate, helping to identify vulnerabilities and improve overall security.
3. Educational Purposes: Honeypots can be used to train cybersecurity professionals, teaching them how to identify and respond to real-world attacks effectively.
Conclusion
Honeypots can enhance the overall security of networks and systems by working in conjunction with Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and firewalls. Information gathered from honeypots can be used to identify attacks that bypass traditional security mechanisms, serve as early warning systems, and act as an additional layer of intrusion detection. However, relying too heavily on honeypots can lead to a false sense of security, causing organizations to potentially neglect other critical aspects of their security posture.
