Detail publikačního výsledku

Increasing Trust in Tor Node List Using Blockchain

HELLEBRANDT, L.; HOMOLIAK, I.; MALINKA, K.; HANÁČEK, P.

Original Title

Increasing Trust in Tor Node List Using Blockchain

English Title

Increasing Trust in Tor Node List Using Blockchain

Type

Paper in proceedings (conference paper)

Original Abstract

Tor is a low-latency free anonymization network based on onion routing. In Tor, directory servers maintain a list of all nodes. It is, however, possible for a powerful adversary (e.g., law enforcement agencies) to seize or compromise enough directory servers and thus forge that list. Therefore, clients that obtained such a forged list of nodes can be effectively deanonymized. As a countermeasure, we propose to utilize a permissioned blockchain with a single voting committee that is privately 'elected' by a verifiable random function (VRF). Since the blockchain provides us with integrity guarantees by design, we increase trust in the directory servers by decentralizing management of Tor nodes present in the shared list. We apply skiplist as an optimization reducing a validation overhead of newly joined nodes and clients. The proposed approach has only a small performance impact on the existing Tor infrastructure.

English abstract

Tor is a low-latency free anonymization network based on onion routing. In Tor, directory servers maintain a list of all nodes. It is, however, possible for a powerful adversary (e.g., law enforcement agencies) to seize or compromise enough directory servers and thus forge that list. Therefore, clients that obtained such a forged list of nodes can be effectively deanonymized. As a countermeasure, we propose to utilize a permissioned blockchain with a single voting committee that is privately 'elected' by a verifiable random function (VRF). Since the blockchain provides us with integrity guarantees by design, we increase trust in the directory servers by decentralizing management of Tor nodes present in the shared list. We apply skiplist as an optimization reducing a validation overhead of newly joined nodes and clients. The proposed approach has only a small performance impact on the existing Tor infrastructure.

Keywords

computer network security, cryptocurrencies, cryptographic protocols, peer-to-peer computing, routing protocols, telecommunication security

Key words in English

computer network security, cryptocurrencies, cryptographic protocols, peer-to-peer computing, routing protocols, telecommunication security

Authors

HELLEBRANDT, L.; HOMOLIAK, I.; MALINKA, K.; HANÁČEK, P.

RIV year

2020

Released

17.05.2019

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Location

Soul

ISBN

978-1-7281-1328-9

Book

2019 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)

Pages from

29

Pages to

32

Pages count

4

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/

BibTex

@inproceedings{BUT162597,
  author="Lukáš {Hellebrandt} and Ivan {Homoliak} and Kamil {Malinka} and Petr {Hanáček}",
  title="Increasing Trust in Tor Node List Using Blockchain",
  booktitle="2019 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)",
  year="2019",
  pages="29--32",
  publisher="Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",
  address="Soul",
  doi="10.1109/BLOC.2019.8751340",
  isbn="978-1-7281-1328-9"
}