A Framework for Searching Internet-Wide Devices

作者:Li, Qiang*; Feng, Xuan; Zhao, Lian; Sun, Limin
来源:IEEE Network, 2017, 31(6): 101-107.
DOI:10.1109/MNET.2017.1700034

摘要

Today, millions of physical devices are visible on the Internet through IP addresses, such as wearables, residential routers, cameras and industrial control devices. Users can access and control online devices, while attackers also target them, bringing potential security concerns. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework for discovering, recognizing and managing these online devices at the Internet-wide scale. It is the first work of Internet-wide device search, including three modules: network measurement, fingerprinting, and applications. We have implemented a prototype system and real-world experiments to illustrate the effectiveness of the framework. Furthermore, we explore the use and application of the system through searching camera devices in the whole IPv4 space. We deployed the system on Amazon EC2 to search for webcams and ICS devices nine times from April 2015 to April 2016, and we found 1.3 million webcams in total. In a comprehensive analysis of our dataset, we have characterized the use of online physical devices on the Internet.