Cyber Security Research Group (CSRG)
CSRG
The Cyber Security Research Group (CSRG) is a research group within the Faculty of Computer Science at Worms University of Applied Sciences that conducts research into IT security. It focuses on the security of local and distributed systems and the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as organisational aspects of IT security within companies.
The research group works closely with the Centre for Research and Technology (ZFT).
On this page, you will find information about the team, topics for final-year dissertations, ongoing and completed projects, and the group’s publications.
Team
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Prof. Dr. Zdravko Bozakov
Professor, Wissenschaftliche Leitung
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- Prof. Dr Bernd Ruhland
- Prof. Dr Steffen Wendzel
- Julia Lenz, M.Sc. (Research Assistant, EMPOWER project)
- Thomas Weigold, M.Sc. (Research Assistant, KIASH and EMPOWER projects)
- Sebastian Zillien, M.Sc. (Research Assistant, SIVERT project)
Theses: Topics and contact persons
We supervise Bachelor’s and Master’s theses on the following topics and related areas. Are you interested in writing a thesis? If so, please feel free to get in touch with the relevant contact person. You’ll find their contact details listed above under ‘Team’.
| Topic | Contact |
|---|---|
| Security of communication protocols | Prof. Dr Zdravko Bozakov, Prof. Dr Herbert Thielen |
| Security of free software and securing IT systems | Prof. Dr Herbert Thielen |
| Security in Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and Cloud Computing | Prof. Dr Zdravko Bozakov |
| Secure, cloud-based software development | Prof. Dr Jens Kohler |
| Theses within the EMPOWER research project | Laura Hartmann, MSc |
Online course: Network Information Hiding
Would you like to write a dissertation on steganography or covert channels? Our freely accessible online course on Network Information Hiding will help you prepare for this.
Research projects on IT security
- EMPOWER (funded by the BMBF, 2023–2027)
- Information Hiding Patterns (since 2021)
- WoDiCoF (since 2017)
- Network Information Hiding Patterns (since 2016)
Video: Information Hiding – Challenges for Forensic Experts
Publications
Here you will find a selection of the research group’s publications, sorted by year. The names of research group members are highlighted in bold.
- Zillien S, Wendzel S (2023): Weaknesses of popular and recent covert channel detection methods and a remedy. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC). DOI: 10.1109/TDSC.2023.3241451. In press.
- Wendzel S, Caviglione L, Mazurczyk M (2023): Avoiding research tribal wars using taxonomies. IEEE Computer 56/1:93–96. IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/MC.2022.3218175.
- Schmidbauer T, Wendzel S (2022): SoK: A Survey of Indirect Network-level Covert Channels. In: Proc. 17th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (AsiaCCS 2022). ACM, pp. 546–560. DOI: 10.1145/3488932.3517418. Acceptance rate: 18.4%.
- Wendzel S, Schmidbauer T, Zillien S, Keller J (2022): Did You See That? A Covert Channel Exploiting Recent Legitimate Traffic. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2212.11850.
- Wendzel S, Caviglione L, Mazurczyk W, Mileva A, Dittmann J, Krätzer C, Lamshöft K, Vielhauer C, Hartmann L, Keller J, Neubert T, Zillien S (2022): A Generic Taxonomy for Steganography Methods. DOI: 10.36227/techrxiv.20215373.
- Schmidbauer T, Keller J, Wendzel S (2022b): Challenging Channels: Encrypted Covert Channels within Challenge-Response Authentication. In: Proc. 17th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2022). ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3538969.3544455.
- Steffen Wendzel, Luca Caviglione, Bernhard Fechner (2022): Poster: Steganography Hiding Patterns: A Brief Review. In: Proceedings of the European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2022). ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3528580.3532997.
- Daniel Bub, Laura Hartmann, Zdravko Bozakov, Steffen Wendzel (2022): Towards Passive Identification of Aged Android Devices in the Home Network. In: Proc. European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2022). ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3528580.3528584.
- Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Luca Caviglione, Amir Houmansadr (2022): Emerging topics in defending networked systems. Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) 128:317–319. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2021.10.010.
- Hartmann L, Wendzel S (2022a): Anomaly Detection for Industrial Control Systems Through the Totally Integrated Automation Portal Project History. Journal of Wireless Mobile Networks, Ubiquitous Computing, and Dependable Applications (JoWUA) 13/3:4–24. DOI: 10.22667/JOWUA.2022.09.30.004.
- Schmidbauer T, Wendzel S (2022b): Detection of Computationally Intensive Reversible Covert Channels Based on Packet Runtime. Journal of Wireless Mobile Networks, Ubiquitous Computing, and Dependable Applications (JoWUA) 13/1:137–166. DOI: 10.22667/JOWUA.2022.03.31.137.
- Mileva A, Velinov A, Dimitrova V, Caviglione L, Wendzel S (2022c): Information Hiding in the DICOM Message Service and Upper Layer Service with Entropy-Based Detection. Entropy 24/2. DOI: 10.3390/e24020176.
- Szary P, Mazurczyk W, Wendzel S, Caviglione L (2022d): Analysis of Reversible Network Covert Channels. ACCESS 10:41226–41238. IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3168018.
- Luca Caviglione, Steffen Wendzel, Aleksandra Mileva, Simon Vrhovec (2021): Multidisciplinary solutions to modern cybersecurity challenges. Journal of Wireless Mobile Networks, Ubiquitous Computing, and Dependable Applications (JoWUA) 12:1–3. DOI: 10.22667/JOWUA.2021.12.31.001.
- Mehdi Chourib, Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk (2021): Adaptive Warden Strategy for Countering Network Covert Storage Channels. In: 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks, LCN 2021. IEEE, pp. 148–153. arxiv.org/abs/2111.03310.
- Laura Hartmann, Steffen Wendzel: Detection of Anomalous Values within TIA Project Data History for Industrial Control Systems, EICC 2021 – Doctoral Symposium, ACM, 2021.
- Laura Hartmann, Steffen Wendzel: How Feasible are Steganographic and Stealth Attacks on TIA Project Metadata of ICS: A Case Study with Real-world Data, EICC 2021 – DETONATOR workshop, ACM, 2021.
- Laura Hartmann, Sebastian Zillien, Steffen Wendzel: Reset- and Reconnection-based Covert Channels in CoAP, EICC 2021 – DETONATOR workshop, ACM, 2021.
- Steffen Wendzel, Luca Caviglione, Alexandar Checco, Aleksandra Mileva, Jean-Francois Lalande, Wojciech Mazurczyk (eds.) (2021): Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Information Security Methodology and Replication Studies (IWSMR’21), part of the ARES Proceedings, ACM, 2021.
- Steffen Wendzel: IT Security for TCP/IP and IoT Networks: Fundamentals, Concepts, Protocols, Hardening, 2nd edition. Springer, 2021.
- Steffen Wendzel, Luca Caviglione, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Aleksandra Mileva, Jana Dittmann, Christian Krätzer, Kevin Lamshöft, Claus Vielhauer, Laura Hartmann, Jörg Keller, Tom Neubert: A Revised Taxonomy of Steganography Embedding Patterns. In: Proc. 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2021). ACM, 2021. Available at patterns.ztt.hs-worms.de.
- Sebastian Zillien, Steffen Wendzel: Reconnection-Based Covert Channels in Wireless Networks. In: Jøsang A, Futcher L, Hagen J (eds.) ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection (Proc. IFIP SEC 2021). Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 118–133, 2021.
- Simon Vrhovec, Luca Caviglione, Steffen Wendzel: Crème de la Crème: Lessons from Papers in Top Publications. In: Proc. 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2021). ACM, 2021.
- Aleksandra Mileva, Luca Caviglione, Aleksandar Velinov, Steffen Wendzel et al.: Risks and Opportunities for Information Hiding in the DICOM Standard. In: Proc. 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2021). ACM, 2021.
- Tobias Schmidbauer, Steffen Wendzel: Hunting Shadows: Towards Packet Runtime-based Detection of Computationally Intensive Reversible Covert Channels. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2021). ACM, 2021.
- Jens Marcus Woehe, Eberhard Kurz: Successfully Managing Crises in Digital Projects, Hanser, ISBN 978-3-446-46756-9, 2021.
- Jörg Keller, Steffen Wendzel: Reversible and Plausibly Deniable Covert Channels in One-Time Passwords Based on Hash Chains, MDPI Applied Sciences, Vol. 11(2), MDPI, 2021.
- Aleksandra Mileva, Aleksandar Velinov, Laura Hartmann, Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk: Comprehensive Analysis of MQTT 5.0 Susceptibility to Network Covert Channels, Computers & Security, Vol. 104, pp. 102207 et seq., Elsevier, 2021.
- Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Luca Caviglione, Amir Houmansadr (eds.): Emerging Topics in Defending Networked Systems, Special Issue, Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS), Elsevier, 2021.
- Steffen Wendzel, Cédric Lévy-Bencheton, Luca Caviglione: Not all Areas are Equal: Analysis of Citations in Information Security Research, Scientometrics, Vol. 122(1), pp. 267–286, Springer, 2020.
- Tobias Schmidbauer, Steffen Wendzel: Covert Storage Caches using the NTP Protocol, in Proc. CUING Workshop 2020 (ARES 2020), ACM, 2020.
- Przemysław Szary, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Luca Caviglione, Steffen Wendzel: Design and Performance Evaluation of Reversible Network Covert Channels, in Proc. CUING Workshop 2020 (ARES 2020), ACM, 2020.
- Steffen Wendzel, Luca Caviglione, Alessandro Checco, Aleksandra Mileva, Jean-Francois Lalande, Wojciech Mazurczyk: Special Issue Editorial: Information Security Methodology, Replication Studies and Information Security Education, Journal of Universal Computer Science, Vol. 26(7), pp. 762–763, 2020.
- Luca Caviglione, Aleksandra Mileva, Steffen Wendzel (eds.): Proceedings of the First European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC’2020), ACM, 2020.
- Jörg Keller, Steffen Wendzel: Covert Channels in One-Time Passwords Based on Hash Chains, in Proc. European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2020), ACM, 2020.
- Laura Hartmann, Steffen Wendzel: Anomaly Detection in ICS based on Data-history Analysis, in Proc. European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2020), ACM, 2020.
- Steffen Wendzel: Review of the book *Future Automation: Changes to Lives and to Businesses* by Carone, T. (World Scientific Publishing Co, Inc., 2018), *ACM Computing Reviews*, 2020.
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel, Mehdi Chourib, Jörg Keller: Countering Adaptive Network Covert Communication with Dynamic Wardens, Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS), Vol. 94, pp. 712–725, Elsevier, 2019.
- Aleksandar Velinov, Aleksandra Mileva, Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk: Covert Channels in MQTT-based Internet of Things, IEEE ACCESS, Vol. 7, pp. 161899–161915, 2019.
- Steffen Wendzel: Protocol-independent Detection of ‘Messaging Ordering’ Network Covert Channels, in Proc. Third International Workshop on Criminal Use of Information Hiding (CUING 2019), pp. 63:1–63:8, ACM, 2019.
- Tobias Schmidbauer, Steffen Wendzel, Aleksandra Mileva, Wojciech Mazurczyk: Introducing Dead Drops to Network Steganography using ARP-Caches and SNMP-Walks, in Proc. Third International Workshop on Criminal Use of Information Hiding (CUING 2019), pp. 64:1–64:10, ACM, 2019.
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Przemysław Szary, Steffen Wendzel, Luca Caviglione: Towards Reversible Storage Network Covert Channels, in Proc. Third International Workshop on Criminal Use of Information Hiding (CUING 2019), pp. 69:1–69:8, ACM, 2019.
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Luca Caviglione, Steffen Wendzel: Recent Advancements in Digital Forensics – part two (Special Issue Introductory Article), IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine, IEEE, Vol. 17(1), 2019.
- Zhihan Lv, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel, Houbing Song (eds.): Recent Advances in Cyber-Physical Security in Industrial Environments, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII), IEEE, 2019.
- Luca Caviglione, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel: Advanced Information Hiding Techniques for Modern Botnets, in: G. Kambourakis et al. (eds.): Botnets: Architectures, Countermeasures, and Challenges, CRC Series in Security, Privacy and Trust, Ch. 4, pp. 165–188, Taylor & Francis, 2019.
- Steffen Wendzel, Johannes Plötner: Introduction to Linux, 8th edition, Rheinwerk Verlag, 2019.
- Qi Wang, Jose M. Alcaraz Calero, [...], Zdravko Bozakov et al.: ‘Enable Advanced QoS-Aware Network Slicing in 5G Networks for Slice-Based Media Use Cases’, IEEE Trans. Broadcast, Vol. 65(2), 2019.
- Steffen Wendzel, Daniela Eller, Wojciech Mazurczyk: One Countermeasure, Multiple Patterns: Countermeasure Variation for Covert Channels, in Proceedings of the Central European Security Conference (CECC’18), pp. 1:1–1:6, ACM, 2018.
- Sebastian Zillien, Steffen Wendzel: Detection of covert channels in TCP retransmissions, in Proc. 23rd Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems (NordSec), LNCS 11252, pp. 203–218, Springer, 2018.
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel: Information Hiding – Challenges for Forensic Experts, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 61(1), pp. 86–94, ACM, January 2018.
- Krzysztof Cabaj, Luca Caviglione, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel, Alan Woodward, Sebastian Zander: The New Threats of Information Hiding: the Road Ahead, IEEE IT Professional, Vol. 20(3), pp. 31–39, IEEE, 2018 (preprint on arXiv).
- Steffen Wendzel: IT Security for TCP/IP and IoT Networks: Fundamentals, Concepts, Protocols, Hardening, Springer Vieweg, ISBN 978-3-658-22603-9, 2018.
- Ralf Keidel, Steffen Wendzel, Sebastian Zillien, Eric S. Conner, Georg Haas: WoDiCoF – A Testbed for the Evaluation of (Parallel) Covert Channel Detection Algorithms, Journal of Universal Computer Science, Vol. 24(5), pp. 556–576, 2018.
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel, Krzysztof Cabaj: Towards Deriving Insights into Data Hiding Methods Using a Pattern-based Approach, in Proc. Second International Workshop on Criminal Use of Information Hiding (CUING 2018) at ARES, pp. 10:1–10:10, ACM, 2018.
- Steffen Wendzel: Get Me Cited, Scotty! Analysis of Citations in Covert Channel/Steganography Research, in Proc. Second International Workshop on Criminal Use of Information Hiding (CUING 2018) at ARES, pp. 13:1–13:8, ACM, 2018.
- Luca Caviglione, Wojciech Mazurczyk, Steffen Wendzel, Sebastian Zander: Special Issue Editorial: Emerging and Unconventional: New Attacks and Innovative Detection Techniques, Security and Communication Networks (SCN), Wiley-Hindawi, 2018.
- Steffen Wendzel: Review of the article ‘Man-in-the-middle attacks on Secure Simple Pairing in Bluetooth Standard V5.0 and Its Countermeasure’ (Springer Pers. Ubiquit. Comput., 2018) by Sun, Mu and Susilo, ACM Computing Reviews, 2018.
- Steffen Wendzel, Detlef Olschewski: The Internet of Things and Smart Contracts: Risks in the Digitalisation of Enterprises, in: Barton et al. (eds.): Applied Business Informatics, Vol. III, pp. 291–302, Springer, 2018.
- Qi Wang, Jose M. Alcaraz Calero, [...], Zdravko Bozakov et al.: SliceNet: End-to-End Cognitive Network Slicing and Slice Management Framework in Virtualised Multi-Domain, in: Multi-Tenant 5G Networks, BMSB, 2018.
Prof. Dr Steffen Wendzel’s publications from 2003 onwards can be found on his website: List of Prof. Wendzel’s publications
Conferences and Calls for Papers
Conferences
- European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC'23), Stavanger, Norway
Journal Special Issues