Abstract
DNS-based data exfiltration via C2 channels and DNS tunneling is a critical cybersecurity challenge, as DNS is a foundational protocol that must remain open on firewalls. Attackers now use DNS not just for exfiltration, but to establish backdoors, execute remote commands, and maintain persistent control over compromised systems. With the evolving scale of C2 infrastructure—leveraging multiplayer C2 modes and botnets—real-time prevention becomes significantly more complex, especially when aiming for zero data loss and accurate process-level implant termination at the endpoint.
Traditional defenses rely heavily on timing and volume-based passive anomaly detection, signature-based filtering, or DPI through proxies and middleware. These approaches are increasingly ineffective against evasive C2 threats. They suffer from delayed detection, longer dwell time, greater data loss before threat removal, and slow response. Most fail to handle DGAs, where attackers constantly mutate domains (L7) and IPs (L3) to evade static blacklists, and they still lack support for instantaneous implant termination.
This framework is built to disrupt DNS-based C2 channels and DNS tunnelling at scale by moving DNS exfiltration security directly into the Linux kernel. Using eBPF-driven endpoint security enforcement, the framework runs advanced threat intelligence across the entire kernel network stack and mandatory access control layer, performing high-speed DPI by parsing the DNS protocol directly inside the kernel. Aided by a userspace deep learning model trained on diverse DNS payload obfuscation techniques, it enhances detection accuracy and enables dynamic runtime enforcement. It instantaneously prevents DNS C2 channels and tunneling, ensuring that no exfiltrated packets ever leave the endpoint — and precisely threat-hunts and kills malicious C2 implant processes in real time. It inherently supports dynamic domain blacklisting, dynamic in-kernel network policy creation, and threat event streaming, enabling massive scalability for real production cloud environments.