Intelligent Honeypot for Web Applications:: Leveraging Seq2Seq and Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Attacker Interaction
Ananya Varadarajan, Ashwin Chandrasekaran, Rachana Binumohan, Rahul Huliyar Ravishankar, Gokul Kannan Sadasivam · 2025
An intelligent honeypot system designed to mimic legitimate websites using Sequence-to-Sequence (Seq2Seq) learning and Deep Q-Learning. The system generates realistic, contextually appropriate responses to attacker queries, prolonging interactions and providing insights into malicious behaviors while safeguarding actual systems. The Seq2Seq model, trained on HTTP request-response pairs, enables the honeypot to produce responses that closely resemble those of real servers, enhancing its ability to deceive attackers. Deep QLearning optimizes engagement by selecting the most effective responses through a custom reward function, balancing realism and interactivity to maximize session length. Performance was evaluated using metrics such as Response Realism Rate (RRR), Semantic Consistency Accuracy (SCA), and Average Session Length (ASL). The honeypot achieved an RRR of 92.3 %, an SCA of 89.7%, and a 94.5% Optimal Response Selection Rate (ORSR). These advancements increased ASL by 143.5 %, from 3.2 to 7.8 exchanges, reflecting prolonged attacker engagement. By integrating Seq2Seq and Deep Q-Learning, this honeypot demonstrates significant improvements in generating convincing responses and sustaining interactions. These results contribute to modern cybersecurity by providing a practical and theoretical framework for developing next-generation honeypots capable of deceiving attackers and gathering actionable intelligence.