Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis

Kyungwon Park; Hyoungshick Kim

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21

Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis

Kyungwon Park, Hyoungshick Kim

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Sungkyunkwan University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many people started being concerned about their privacy in delivering private chats, photographs, contacts and other personal information through mobile instant messaging services. Fortunately, in the majority of mobile instant messaging services, encrypted communication channels (e.g., using the SSL/TLS protocols) are used by default to protect delivered messages against eavesdropping attacks. In this paper, however, we show that encryption is not enough. For example, in a real world service named KakaoTalk, many users’ online activities can effectively be identified with 99.7% accuracy even though traffic is encrypted. We present a practical traffic analysis attack using a supervised machine learning technique.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Dooho Choi, Ho-Won Kim
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	254-265
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	9783319318745
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21
State	Published - 2016
Event	16th International Workshop on Information Security Applications, WISA 2015 - Jeju Island, Korea, Republic of Duration: 20 Aug 2015 → 22 Aug 2015

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	9503
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	16th International Workshop on Information Security Applications, WISA 2015
Country/Territory	Korea, Republic of
City	Jeju Island
Period	20/08/15 → 22/08/15

Keywords

KakaoTalk
Mobile instant messenger
Traffic analysis
Traffic classification

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21

Cite this

Park, K., & Kim, H. (2016). Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis. In D. Choi, & H.-W. Kim (Eds.), Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 254-265). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9503). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21

Park, Kyungwon ; Kim, Hyoungshick. / Encryption is not enough : Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis. Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Dooho Choi ; Ho-Won Kim. Springer Verlag, 2016. pp. 254-265 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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title = "Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis",

abstract = "Many people started being concerned about their privacy in delivering private chats, photographs, contacts and other personal information through mobile instant messaging services. Fortunately, in the majority of mobile instant messaging services, encrypted communication channels (e.g., using the SSL/TLS protocols) are used by default to protect delivered messages against eavesdropping attacks. In this paper, however, we show that encryption is not enough. For example, in a real world service named KakaoTalk, many users{\textquoteright} online activities can effectively be identified with 99.7\% accuracy even though traffic is encrypted. We present a practical traffic analysis attack using a supervised machine learning technique.",

keywords = "KakaoTalk, Mobile instant messenger, Traffic analysis, Traffic classification",

author = "Kyungwon Park and Hyoungshick Kim",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.; 16th International Workshop on Information Security Applications, WISA 2015 ; Conference date: 20-08-2015 Through 22-08-2015",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2\_21",

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isbn = "9783319318745",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)",

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editor = "Dooho Choi and Ho-Won Kim",

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Park, K & Kim, H 2016, Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis. in D Choi & H-W Kim (eds), Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 9503, Springer Verlag, pp. 254-265, 16th International Workshop on Information Security Applications, WISA 2015, Jeju Island, Korea, Republic of, 20/08/15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21

Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis. / Park, Kyungwon; Kim, Hyoungshick.
Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Dooho Choi; Ho-Won Kim. Springer Verlag, 2016. p. 254-265 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9503).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.

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N2 - Many people started being concerned about their privacy in delivering private chats, photographs, contacts and other personal information through mobile instant messaging services. Fortunately, in the majority of mobile instant messaging services, encrypted communication channels (e.g., using the SSL/TLS protocols) are used by default to protect delivered messages against eavesdropping attacks. In this paper, however, we show that encryption is not enough. For example, in a real world service named KakaoTalk, many users’ online activities can effectively be identified with 99.7% accuracy even though traffic is encrypted. We present a practical traffic analysis attack using a supervised machine learning technique.

AB - Many people started being concerned about their privacy in delivering private chats, photographs, contacts and other personal information through mobile instant messaging services. Fortunately, in the majority of mobile instant messaging services, encrypted communication channels (e.g., using the SSL/TLS protocols) are used by default to protect delivered messages against eavesdropping attacks. In this paper, however, we show that encryption is not enough. For example, in a real world service named KakaoTalk, many users’ online activities can effectively be identified with 99.7% accuracy even though traffic is encrypted. We present a practical traffic analysis attack using a supervised machine learning technique.

KW - KakaoTalk

KW - Mobile instant messenger

KW - Traffic analysis

KW - Traffic classification

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84962256374

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T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

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BT - Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers

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Park K, Kim H. Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis. In Choi D, Kim HW, editors, Information Security Applications - 16th International Workshop, WISA 2015, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Verlag. 2016. p. 254-265. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-31875-2_21

Encryption is not enough: Inferring user activities on KakaoTalk with traffic analysis

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Keywords

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