HoneyMesh v19.3.9 Threat Model Summary

HoneyMesh is a decentralized, kernel-enforced active defense system designed with defense-in-depth and zero-trust principles at its core. It treats external threats as untrusted, local kernel enforcement as authoritative, and mesh peers as advisory only—ensuring no single compromised node can poison the network.

Key Trust Model

• Kernel (XDP/eBPF): Fully trusted for instant packet drops and SYN scan detection.

• Userspace: Trusted for traps, entropy analysis, and dashboard control.

• Mesh Peers: Semi-trusted—intelligence is encrypted, rate-limited, and TTL-bound (default 24h); local policy always overrides.

STRIDE Highlights

• Spoofing/Tampering: Blocked by AES-encrypted gossip, constant-time auth, and advisory mesh (peers can't force permanent changes).

• Repudiation: Full origin tagging + persistent, exportable logs.

• Information Disclosure: TLS dashboard, minimal data sharing, no sessions/cookies.

• DoS: Rate limiting, bounded maps, early kernel drops, and read deadlines.

• Elevation: Seccomp blocks dangerous syscalls; unprivileged BPF disabled.

MITRE ATT&CK Coverage HoneyMesh excels in early phases:

• Recon/Initial Access: Detects scans (T1595/T1046) and traps exploits/brute force.

• Execution/Evasion: Entropy flags obfuscated payloads; thresholds catch slow scans.

• Persistence/C2/Impact: Kernel blocks prevent follow-on access and resist DoS.

Abuse Resistance

• Compromised peer: Limited to temporary suggestions—detectable and auto-expiring.

• Dashboard attack: Token brute-force impossible; instant rotation.

• Floods: Kernel absorbs post-detection; resources bounded.

Residual Risks: Low (mainly kernel zero-days or token leaks—mitigated by patching/rotation).

Overall Posture: Low risk, high maturity—ideal for enterprise perimeters, with strong poisoning resistance and auditability. HoneyMesh turns deception into unbreakable, distributed resilience.

🛡️ HoneyMesh Threat Model & Hardening

HoneyMesh v19.3.9 Hardening

HoneyMesh is engineered as a hardened, single-binary appliance from the ground up, prioritizing security in hostile environments. Hardening spans kernel protections, runtime restrictions, network safeguards, and operational controls—ensuring resilience against compromise, tampering, and abuse while maintaining minimal attack surface.

Kernel & Enforcement Hardening

- eBPF/XDP Enforcement: All blocking occurs in kernel space via XDP (generic mode with VLAN/QinQ support)—packets from banned IPs are dropped silently at line rate before reaching userspace or the network stack.

- Unprivileged BPF Disabled: System-wide `/proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_bpf_disabled=1` prevents rogue eBPF loading by non-root processes.

- Bounded Kernel Maps: LRU hash maps (10k entries max) with automatic eviction; prevents memory exhaustion from floods.

Runtime & Process Hardening

- Seccomp Profile: Strict allow-list filter blocks high-risk syscalls (ptrace, mount, reboot, kexec_load)—prevents debugging, container escapes, or system reconfiguration by exploits.

- Minimal Privileges: Runs as root only for XDP/sysctl; single-purpose binary with no unnecessary capabilities or setuid.

- Panic Recovery: Trap listeners recover from panics with restarts; no crash propagation.

- Resource Limits: Bounded goroutines, channels, and maps; periodic cleanups for scan trackers and TTL expirations.

Network & Communication Hardening

- Encrypted Mesh Gossip: Memberlist uses per-cluster AES-256 SecretKey; prevents eavesdropping or injection.

- Advisory Mesh Model: Remote bans are TTL-limited (default 24h), rate-limited (500ms per peer), and cannot override local reasons/policy—resists poisoning.

- TLS-Only Dashboard: Self-signed certs with SAN/IP; encrypted UI traffic; no plain HTTP.

- Trap Protections: 3-second read deadlines prevent slowloris; kernel drops post-ban.

Authentication & Access Control

- Constant-Time Token Auth: Strong 256-bit random hex token; compared securely to thwart timing attacks.

- No Sessions/Cookies: Stateless header/query auth reduces CSRF; token rotatable via protected endpoint.

- Cluster Isolation: Separate keys per mesh; minimal data sharing (only IP + reason).

Operational & Forensic Hardening

- Immutable Logging: Persistent SQLite events with timestamps/origins; exportable JSON/CSV for SIEM.

- Origin Tagging & Reason Bitmasks: Full attribution prevents repudiation.

- Fleet Rotation: Built-in token rotation propagates securely via orchestration.

Overall Posture: HoneyMesh achieves low residual risk through layered defenses—kernel-first, zero-trust federation, and explicit anti-abuse controls. It's designed to survive compromised peers, floods, or leaks while remaining lightweight and auditable. Ideal for exposed perimeters with confidence in hostile networks. 🛡️