A honeypot detects attack behavior through the mechanism of deception and monitoring. It is a deliberately vulnerable system or service deployed in a network to attract attackers. Unlike real production systems, a honeypot has no legitimate business functions, so any interaction with it is considered suspicious or malicious by design.
When an attacker attempts to scan, probe, or exploit the honeypot, the system logs all activities, including IP addresses, accessed ports, payloads, and methods used. Since the honeypot is isolated from critical infrastructure, it allows security teams to study attack techniques without risking actual data or services.
For example, a low-interaction honeypot might simulate an FTP server with weak credentials. When an attacker tries to log in using common default usernames and passwords, the honeypot records the login attempts and the tools used. A high-interaction honeypot, on the other hand, might run a real but isolated operating system, allowing deeper analysis of attacker behavior, such as privilege escalation attempts or malware deployment.
In cloud environments, Tencent Cloud offers security solutions like Host Security and Cloud Workload Protection (CWP) that can integrate with honeypot-like mechanisms to detect and analyze threats. Additionally, Tencent Cloud Security Center provides threat intelligence and anomaly detection, helping identify suspicious activities that may indicate attacks. These services can work alongside honeypots to enhance overall security monitoring.