Adversarial Reinforcement Learning Based IoT Honeypot

Internet of Things (IoT) honeypots are decoy systems deployed to entice attackers to gather threat intelligence and protect real systems. High-interaction IoT honeypots powered by reinforcement learning (RL) have emerged as a promising solution due to their cost-effectiveness and scalability. However, these systems are typically based on the assumption that attackers exhibit stationary behavior. In reality, attack strategies against IoT can be dynamic and adaptive, creating a non-stationary environment due to the adversarial nature of attacker-honeypot interactions. To solve this issue, we propose an IoT honeypot based on adversarial reinforcement learning, i.e., Repeated-Update-Q-learning (RUQL, a classical RL method for non-stationary environments). It is composed of a data preprocessing module, an RUQL module, and a response database. Experimental results show that compared to honeypots based on random strategies, classical Q-learning, and deep RL, the proposed system can effectively respond to attacks and improve attack capture and analysis capabilities.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-06-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/icca65672.2025.11129792
Primary Topic
Network Security and Intrusion Detection
Type
article
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article

Adversarial Reinforcement Learning Based IoT Honeypot

Chengcheng Zhao, Siyuan Zhang, Hao Zhang, Chengrun He
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Network Security and Intrusion Detection
article

Adversarial Reinforcement Learning Based IoT Honeypot

Chengcheng Zhao, Siyuan Zhang, Hao Zhang, Chengrun He
article en

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) honeypots are decoy systems deployed to entice attackers to gather threat intelligence and protect real systems. High-interaction IoT honeypots powered by reinforcement learning (RL) have emerged as a promising solution due to their cost-effectiveness and scalability. However, these systems are typically based on the assumption that attackers exhibit stationary behavior. In reality, attack strategies against IoT can be dynamic and adaptive, creating a non-stationary environment due to the adversarial nature of attacker-honeypot interactions. To solve this issue, we propose an IoT honeypot based on adversarial reinforcement learning, i.e., Repeated-Update-Q-learning (RUQL, a classical RL method for non-stationary environments). It is composed of a data preprocessing module, an RUQL module, and a response database. Experimental results show that compared to honeypots based on random strategies, classical Q-learning, and deep RL, the proposed system can effectively respond to attacks and improve attack capture and analysis capabilities.

Vision Technology (United States) (US), Zhejiang University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 73%
Network Security and Intrusion Detection
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Adversarial Reinforcement Learning Based IoT Honeypot — Chengcheng Zhao, Siyuan Zhang, et al. · (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS