Toward Active and Passive Confidentiality Attacks on Cryptocurrency Off-chain Networks

Utz Nisslmueller, Klaus-Tycho Foerster, Stefan Schmid, Christian Decker

2020

Abstract

Cryptocurrency off-chain networks such as Lightning (e.g., Bitcoin) or Raiden (e.g., Ethereum) aim to increase the scalability of traditional on-chain transactions. To support nodes to learn about possible paths to route their transactions, these networks need to provide gossip and probing mechanisms. This paper explores whether these mechanisms may be exploited to infer sensitive information about the flow of transactions, and eventually harm privacy. In particular, we identify two threats, related to an active and a passive adversary. The first is a probing attack: here the adversary aims the maximum amount which is transferable in a given direction of a target channel, by active probing. The second is a timing attack: the adversary discovers how close the destination of a routed payment actually is, by acting as a passive man-in-the middle. We then analyze the limitations of these attacks and propose remediations for scenarios in which they are able to produce accurate results.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Nisslmueller U., Foerster K., Schmid S. and Decker C. (2020). Toward Active and Passive Confidentiality Attacks on Cryptocurrency Off-chain Networks. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP, ISBN 978-989-758-399-5, pages 7-14. DOI: 10.5220/0009429200070014

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp20,
author={Utz Nisslmueller and Klaus-Tycho Foerster and Stefan Schmid and Christian Decker},
title={Toward Active and Passive Confidentiality Attacks on Cryptocurrency Off-chain Networks},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP,},
year={2020},
pages={7-14},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009429200070014},
isbn={978-989-758-399-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP,
TI - Toward Active and Passive Confidentiality Attacks on Cryptocurrency Off-chain Networks
SN - 978-989-758-399-5
AU - Nisslmueller U.
AU - Foerster K.
AU - Schmid S.
AU - Decker C.
PY - 2020
SP - 7
EP - 14
DO - 10.5220/0009429200070014