Kibeom Kim, Youngho Cho, Journal of Internet Computing and Services, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 103-110, Oct. 2022
10.7472/jksii.2022.23.5.103, Full Text:
Keywords: Bitcoin Network, Botnet C&C Communication, Encryption, Cyber Threat

Abstract

Botnets have been exploited for a variety of purposes, ranging from monetary demands to national threats, and are one of the most threatening types of attacks in the field of cybersecurity. Botnets emerged as a centralized structure in the early days and then evolved to a P2P structure. Bitcoin is the first online cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology announced by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and is the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world. As the number of Bitcoin users increases, the size of Bitcoin network is also expanding. As a result, a botnet using the Bitcoin network as a C&C channel has emerged, and related research has been recently reported. In this study, we propose an encrypted botnet C&C communication mechanism and technique in the Bitcoin network and validate the proposed method by conducting performance evaluation through various experiments after building it on the Bitcoin testnet. By this research, we want to inform the possibility of botnet threats in the Bitcoin network to researchers.

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