A conservative strategy to protect P2P file sharing systems from pollution attacks

Abstract

SUMMARYDespite being currently one of the main Internet applications, P2P file sharing has been hampered by content pollution attacks. To tackle this problem, we introduce a novel pollution control strategy that consists in adjusting the rate in which content is disseminated, according to content version reputation. The proposed strategy is modeled and evaluated using simplifying assumptions. Then, inspired by classic distributed designs, we propose a pollution control mechanism that implements such a strategy. The mechanism is evaluated in terms of the delays imposed on non-polluted version dissemination, the effectiveness of reducing dissemination when the version is polluted, and the negative impact that collusion attacks can impose on the reputation system upon which our mechanism is built. Simulation results looking at scenarios with several hundred peers indicate that the pollution control mechanism can effectively reduce pollution without substantially affecting the dissemination of non-polluted content.

Application of Fault-Tolerant Mechanism to Reduce Pollution Attacks in Peer-to-Peer Networks

“…Besides using a general reputation model, the mechanism gathers extra inherent file-related information for peers to identify the potential pollution without completely downloading the requested content. Barcellos et al [25] developed a reputation-based pollution control strategy in which the dissemination rate of a content is limited according to the reputation of the version. In this way, the polluted content is eliminated before a peer vote on the version negatively.…”