Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies

Maria Apostolaki; Cedric Maire; Laurent Vanbever

doi:10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7

Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies

Maria Apostolaki, Cedric Maire, Laurent Vanbever

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies are widely used today for anonymous transactions. Such currencies rely on a peer-to-peer network where users can broadcast transactions containing their pseudonyms and ask for approval. Previous research has shown that application-level eavesdroppers, meaning nodes connected to a large portion of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, are able to deanonymize multiple users by tracing back the source of transactions. Yet, such attacks are highly visible as the attacker needs to maintain thousands of outbound connections. Moreover, they can be mitigated by purely application-layer countermeasures. This paper presents a stealthier and harder-to-mitigate attack exploiting the interactions between the networking and application layers. Particularly, the adversary combines her access over Internet infrastructure with application-layer information to deanonymize transactions. We show that this attack, namely Perimeter, is practical in today’s Internet, achieves high accuracy in Bitcoin, and generalizes to encrypted cryptocurrencies e.g., Ethereum.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Nikita Borisov, Claudia Diaz
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	147-166
Number of pages	20
ISBN (Print)	9783662643211
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7
State	Published - 2021
Externally published	Yes
Event	25th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2021 - Virtual, Online Duration: Mar 1 2021 → Mar 5 2021

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	12674 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	25th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2021
City	Virtual, Online
Period	3/1/21 → 3/5/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Theoretical Computer Science
General Computer Science

Keywords

BGP
Bitcoin
Blockchain
Deanonymization
Ethereum
Network-layer attack
Routing attack

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7

Cite this

Apostolaki, M., Maire, C., & Vanbever, L. (2021). Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies. In N. Borisov, & C. Diaz (Eds.), Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 147-166). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12674 LNCS). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7

Apostolaki, Maria ; Maire, Cedric ; Vanbever, Laurent. / Perimeter : A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies. Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Nikita Borisov ; Claudia Diaz. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021. pp. 147-166 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "Cryptocurrencies are widely used today for anonymous transactions. Such currencies rely on a peer-to-peer network where users can broadcast transactions containing their pseudonyms and ask for approval. Previous research has shown that application-level eavesdroppers, meaning nodes connected to a large portion of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, are able to deanonymize multiple users by tracing back the source of transactions. Yet, such attacks are highly visible as the attacker needs to maintain thousands of outbound connections. Moreover, they can be mitigated by purely application-layer countermeasures. This paper presents a stealthier and harder-to-mitigate attack exploiting the interactions between the networking and application layers. Particularly, the adversary combines her access over Internet infrastructure with application-layer information to deanonymize transactions. We show that this attack, namely Perimeter, is practical in today{\textquoteright}s Internet, achieves high accuracy in Bitcoin, and generalizes to encrypted cryptocurrencies e.g., Ethereum.",

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Apostolaki, M, Maire, C & Vanbever, L 2021, Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies. in N Borisov & C Diaz (eds), Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 12674 LNCS, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 147-166, 25th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2021, Virtual, Online, 3/1/21. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7

Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies. / Apostolaki, Maria; Maire, Cedric; Vanbever, Laurent.
Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Nikita Borisov; Claudia Diaz. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021. p. 147-166 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12674 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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AU - Apostolaki, Maria

AU - Maire, Cedric

AU - Vanbever, Laurent

PY - 2021

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N2 - Cryptocurrencies are widely used today for anonymous transactions. Such currencies rely on a peer-to-peer network where users can broadcast transactions containing their pseudonyms and ask for approval. Previous research has shown that application-level eavesdroppers, meaning nodes connected to a large portion of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, are able to deanonymize multiple users by tracing back the source of transactions. Yet, such attacks are highly visible as the attacker needs to maintain thousands of outbound connections. Moreover, they can be mitigated by purely application-layer countermeasures. This paper presents a stealthier and harder-to-mitigate attack exploiting the interactions between the networking and application layers. Particularly, the adversary combines her access over Internet infrastructure with application-layer information to deanonymize transactions. We show that this attack, namely Perimeter, is practical in today’s Internet, achieves high accuracy in Bitcoin, and generalizes to encrypted cryptocurrencies e.g., Ethereum.

AB - Cryptocurrencies are widely used today for anonymous transactions. Such currencies rely on a peer-to-peer network where users can broadcast transactions containing their pseudonyms and ask for approval. Previous research has shown that application-level eavesdroppers, meaning nodes connected to a large portion of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, are able to deanonymize multiple users by tracing back the source of transactions. Yet, such attacks are highly visible as the attacker needs to maintain thousands of outbound connections. Moreover, they can be mitigated by purely application-layer countermeasures. This paper presents a stealthier and harder-to-mitigate attack exploiting the interactions between the networking and application layers. Particularly, the adversary combines her access over Internet infrastructure with application-layer information to deanonymize transactions. We show that this attack, namely Perimeter, is practical in today’s Internet, achieves high accuracy in Bitcoin, and generalizes to encrypted cryptocurrencies e.g., Ethereum.

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ER -

Apostolaki M, Maire C, Vanbever L. Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies. In Borisov N, Diaz C, editors, Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 25th International Conference, FC 2021, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2021. p. 147-166. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-64322-8_7

Perimeter: A Network-Layer Attack on the Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

Access to Document

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