a system feature that the system architects neither designed nor intended for information transfer
a vessel in which information can pass, but this vessel is not ordinarily used for information exchange
a way of secretly transferring information between two policies that are forbidden from communicating
a method of passing information from one program to another using hardware and OS performance characteristics. For example, by causing the machine disk access to slow dramatically by thrashing the disk, using a code of on/off thrashing periods, one could very slowly transmit information, bit by bit, to another program, without a direct capability. : Set of enhancements to Java supplied by Electric Communities which supplies, among other features, capability-based security.
A communication channel that allows a process to transfer information in a manner that violates the system's security policy.
A communication channel that allows two cooperating processes to transfer information in a manner that violates the system's security policy. Synonymous with Confinement Channel.
A hidden communication medium. See also subliminal channel.
In information theory, a covert channel is a parasitic communications channel that draws bandwidth from another channel in order to transmit information without the authorization or knowledge of the latter channel's designer, owner, or operator.