SPKT: Secure Port Knock-Tunneling, an enhanced port security authentication mechanism

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the authentication process due to the key role that it has in the network security. Port Knocking (PKn) is an authentication method in which data transmits through the closed ports. This method is prone to attacks when attackers sniff the network. This paper proposes a new method which is called “Secure Port Knock-Tunneling” to eliminate both DOS-Knocking and NATK-nocking attacks. The possibility of implementation of this method is investigated on the Mikrotik devices.