{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,22]],"date-time":"2025-10-22T10:48:24Z","timestamp":1761130104250,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,1]],"date-time":"2023-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690848000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme","award":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"]}]},{"name":"European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)","award":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"]}]},{"name":"Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking (KDT JU)","award":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NORTE 2020","NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000044","101097267"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JSAN"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The fast development and adoption of IoT technologies has been enabling their application into increasingly sensitive domains, such as Medical and Industrial IoT, in which safety and cyber-security are paramount. While the number of deployed IoT devices increases annually, they still present severe cyber-security vulnerabilities, becoming potential targets and entry points for further attacks. As these nodes become compromised, attackers aim to set up stealthy communication behaviours, to exfiltrate data or to orchestrate nodes in a cloaked fashion, and network timing covert channels are increasingly being used with such malicious intents. The IEEE 802.15.4 is one of the most pervasive protocols in IoT and a fundamental part of many communication infrastructures. Despite this fact, the possibility of setting up such covert communication techniques on this medium has received very little attention. We aim to analyse the performance and feasibility of such covert-channel implementations upon the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, particularly upon the DSME behaviour, one of the most promising for large-scale time critical communications. This enables us to better understand the involved risk of such threats and help support the development of active cyber-security mechanisms to mitigate these threats, which, for now, we provide in the form of practical network setup recommendations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jsan12040060","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,1]],"date-time":"2023-08-01T09:24:24Z","timestamp":1690881864000},"page":"60","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Performance Assessment and Mitigation of Timing Covert Channels over the IEEE 802.15.4"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4215-3238","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo","family":"Severino","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"PORTIC, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Rua Arquitecto Lob\u00e3o Vital, 172, 4200-375 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Rodrigues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PORTIC, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Rua Arquitecto Lob\u00e3o Vital, 172, 4200-375 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Alves","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ISEP-IPP, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Rua Dr. Ant\u00f3nio Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5976-8853","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luis Lino","family":"Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ISEP-IPP, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Rua Dr. Ant\u00f3nio Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"INESC-TEC, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"U.S. Department of Defense."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"644","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comcom.2019.12.030","article-title":"Intelligence in the Internet of Medical Things era: A systematic review of current and future trends","volume":"150","author":"Nawaz","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. 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