Honey-Gauge: Enabling User-Centric Honeypot Classification

Vinay Sachidananda, Berwyn Chai, Florian Gondesen, Kwok-Yan Lam, Yang Liu

Abstract: Honeypots serve the purpose of scrutinizing and comprehending attackers’ techniques, tactics, and procedures through vigilant observation of their actions within the honeypot environment. Nevertheless, the absence of a benchmark for gauging their end-user usability remains a prevailing issue. While existing literature classifies honeypots primarily by functionality, the novel Honey-Gauge framework, introduced in this research, aims to categorize honeypots based on the metrics of usability, deployability, and information retrieval methodology. Our evaluation encompassed seven honeypots, including T-Pot, Dionaea, and Conpot, assessing diverse categories and attributes, and presenting usability results derived from their respective scores. The Honey-Gauge framework stands as a potent tool for classifying honeypots according to a spectrum of architectural design categories and attributes that cater to the unique needs of end users. In summation, the outcomes of this study underscore the Honey-Gauge framework’s effectiveness as a tool for the comprehensive assessment and comparison of honeypots, grounded in their usability and features.