A review of recent Peer-to-Peer botnet detection techniques

Abstract

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) botnets have emerged as a serious threat against the network security. They are used to carry out various illicit activities like click fraud, DDOS attacks and for information exfiltration. These botnets use distributed concept for command dissemination. These botnets are resilient to dynamic churn and to take-down attempts. Earlier P2P botnet detection techniques have some shortcomings such as they have less accuracy, unable to detect stealthy botnets and advanced botnets using fast-flux networks. In this paper, we list recent P2P botnet detection techniques that overcome the weaknesses of previous techniques with higher detection accuracy. We also discuss various such techniques, their advantages, accuracy and the weaknesses they too are having. However, two or more techniques can be used together to have more accurate and robust P2P botnet detection.