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Encrypted Malicious Traffic Detection Based on Ensemble Learning

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 13172))

Abstract

Nowadays, network traffic detection plays a very important role in protecting cyberspace security, and more and more applications realize data privacy protection through encryption technology. Regular expression matching based methods, such as deep packet inspection that relies on plaintext traffic cannot be applied to detecting encrypted random communication content, and the existing detecting methods based on time-series features often ignore the encryption protocol features. In this work, we design an ensemble learning system based on stack algorithms to identify encrypted malicious traffic, which can detect the interactive behavior and the encryption protocols simultaneously. In detail, we construct a deep learning classifier based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) for time-series features, and a machine learning classifier based on random forests for encryption protocol features. Then, we use the stacking algorithm in ensemble learning to combine them to form a new classifier. Finally, relying on the Datacon2020 dataset, extensive experiments are conducted. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method improves the detection rate of encrypted malicious traffic while keeping a low false positive rate.

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFF01012200), and the Key Science and Technology Project of Anhui (No. 202103a05020006), and the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1908085QF266).

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Correspondence to Feng Yang .

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Xiao, F., Yang, F., Chen, S., Yang, J. (2022). Encrypted Malicious Traffic Detection Based on Ensemble Learning. In: Meng, W., Conti, M. (eds) Cyberspace Safety and Security. CSS 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13172. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94029-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94029-4_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94028-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-94029-4

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