Journal Article

Detecting hidden communication threats in cloud systems using advanced pattern and threat propagation analysis

Sreelatha, Gavini, Tak, Tan Kuan, Maram, Balajee, Kalimuthu, Rajkumar, Venkatakrishnamoorthy, T., Kshirsagar, Pravin R.

2025

Overview

Cloud environments enable scalable multi-tenant computing but introduce security risks like covert channels, making their detection and classification essential for maintaining cloud security. Initially, covert channels exploit shared resource dynamics to mimic normal workload behavior, allowing malicious data transmission to go unnoticed by standard security measures. In addition, covert channels embed signals in encrypted or obfuscated traffic through multi-layered encryption and protocol tunneling, creating inherent noise that attackers exploit to sustain covert communication channels quietly. Hence, to tackle theses drawbacks, a Fourier-Warp Entropic Reinforcement Graph Detector is introduced, combining the Fourier-Warp Convolutional IsoForest Graph Detector and Adaptive Entropic Reinforcement Graph Transformer. This integrated system analyzes temporal and spatial workload patterns, detects abnormal timing behaviors, and identifies hidden communications. It then adaptively refines decisions, ensuring reliable distinction between normal workload fluctuations and covert activity, even when communications are encrypted or obfuscated. Thus, the model learns and classifies diverse covert threats with high precision by mapping inter-tenant relationships, delivering robust and adaptive protection for multi-tenant cloud environments. This method improves cloud security by constantly learning and neutralizing covert threats, achieving high accuracy, recall, and low detection errors, while significantly reducing RMSE.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V,SpringerOpen
• Subject: Accuracy / Anomaly detection / Artificial intelligence / Behavior / Channels / Cloud computing / Cloud security / Cloud threat mitigation / Communication / Computer Communication Networks / Computer Science / Computer System Implementation / Computer Systems Organization and Communication Networks / Confidentiality / Covert channel detection / Cybersecurity / Data integrity / Data mining / Data transmission / Decision making / Deep learning / Encryption / Error reduction / Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet) / Internet of Things / Literature reviews / Machine learning / Multi-Tenant cloud security / Multilayers / Neural networks / Pattern analysis / Propagation / Security / Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems / Special Purpose and Application-Based Systems / Statistical analysis / Threats / Workload