SnailLoad Demo Webserver

This repository contains the source code for the SnailLoad example webserver, as showcased on http://demo.snailload.com

The webserver demonstrates that TCP round trip times carry side-channel information about the current network activity on a victim's internet connection. The code shows how a Linux server process obtains network latency traces from a TCP connection initiated by the victim. The demo webserver slowly generates a BMP file from the measured latencies on the fly and progressively sends it to the victim. This demonstrates the most central claim of the SnailLoad paper: The network latency side channel can be observed from arbitrary TCP connections.

Compile + Install

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/IAIK/SnailLoad.git
2. Change into the SnailLoad/demo_server directory: cd SnailLoad/demo_server.
3. Compile the server binary: make
4. Copy the demo_server binary and index_html to your virtual or dedicated server.
5. Log in to your server via SSH.
6. If the server binary should use a TCP port below 1024, adjust the capabilities: sudo setcap cap_net_bind_service+ep demo_server
7. Start the server binary on the designated TCP port: ./demo_server -p $PORT, with $PORT being the port number.