Hijacking Bitcoin: Routing Attacks on Cryptocurrencies

摘要: As the most successful cryptocurrency to date, Bitcoin constitutes a target of choice for attackers. While many attack vectors have already been uncovered, one important vector has left out though: attacking currency via Internet routing infrastructure itself. Indeed, by manipulating advertisements (BGP hijacks) or naturally intercepting traffic, Autonomous Systems (ASes) can intercept and manipulate large fraction traffic. This paper presents first taxonomy attacks their impact on Bitcoin, considering both small-scale attacks, targeting individual nodes, large-scale network as whole. challenging, we show that two key properties make practical: (i) efficiency manipulation; (ii) significant centralization in terms mining routing. Specifically, find any attacker hijack few (<100) BGP prefixes isolate ~50% power---even when pools are heavily multi-homed. We also on-path attackers considerably slow down block propagation interfering with messages. We demonstrate feasibility each against deployed software. quantify effectiveness current topology using data collected from supernode combined data. The potential damage is worrying. By isolating parts delaying propagation, cause amount power be wasted, leading revenue losses enabling wide range exploits such double spending. To prevent effects practice, provide short long-term countermeasures, some which immediately.