A High-Performance Method for Anonymity in Peer to Peer File
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Information Sciences and Technology A HIGH-PERFORMANCE SYSTEM FOR ANONYMITY IN PEER-TO-PEER FILE TRANSFER NETWORKS A Thesis in Information Sciences and Technology by Tyler James Frederick © 2017 Tyler James Frederick Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2017 The thesis of Tyler James Frederick was reviewed and approved* by the following: Sencun Zhu Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Thesis Adviser Dinghao Wu Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Gerald Santoro Senior Lecturer of Information Sciences and Technology Andrea Tapia Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Director of Graduate Programs, College of Information Sciences and Technology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii Abstract In peer-to-peer file transfer, the properties of privacy and performance are often mutually exclusive. Although there are a wide variety of peer-to-peer applications and networks which attempt to close this gap, even the most elegant systems still present privacy and performance as start trade-offs to one another. Amidst continually increasing concerns about privacy, as well as ever growing amount of data being transferred, a peer-to-peer system which provides a more balanced approach to anonymity and performance is desperately needed. In this research, I propose a new system called Excelsior which embraces both of these properties in a hybrid network utilizing DC-nets, entanglement, and BitTorrent-style content distribution. This system is designed to provide a simple and straightforward means for the ubiquitous BitTorrent to vastly increase user privacy with the minimum possible performance sacrifice. iii Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................. viii List of Tables ................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Objectives ............................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................... 5 2.1 Communication Models .......................................................................................... 5 2.2 Peer-to-Peer Networking ........................................................................................ 7 2.3 File Sharing ...........................................................................................................10 2.4 BitTorrent .............................................................................................................12 2.5 Privacy and Anonymity: Defined ..........................................................................14 2.6 Privacy and Anonymity: Trade-Offs .....................................................................17 2.7 Existing Solutions .................................................................................................18 Chapter 3: Excelsior .......................................................................................................20 3.1 Overview ...............................................................................................................20 3.2 Objectives for Resulting System ............................................................................20 3.3 General Theory of Operation ................................................................................21 3.4 Modes of Operation ...............................................................................................24 3.4.1 Overview .........................................................................................................24 iv 3.4.2 Single Source ...................................................................................................24 3.4.3 Multi-Source ...................................................................................................25 3.5 Technical Description ............................................................................................27 3.5.1 Common Elements ..........................................................................................27 3.5.1.1 Dining Cryptographers Network ...............................................................27 3.5.1.2 Block Identification and Validation ..........................................................30 3.5.1.3 Publishing and Advertisement..................................................................30 3.5.2 Single Source ...................................................................................................31 3.5.2.1 Entanglement Process ..............................................................................31 3.5.2.2 Initial Seed-to-Seed Distribution ..............................................................32 3.5.2.3 Client Downloads .....................................................................................33 3.5.2.4 Reassembly ...............................................................................................33 3.5.3 Multi-Source ...................................................................................................34 3.5.3.1 Initial Seed-to-Seed Distribution ..............................................................34 3.5.3.2 Entanglement Process ..............................................................................35 3.5.3.3 Client Downloads .....................................................................................35 3.5.3.4 Reassembly ...............................................................................................36 Chapter 4: Performance Analysis ...................................................................................38 4.1 Overview and Methodology ...................................................................................38 4.2 Goals .....................................................................................................................39 4.3 Test Environment .................................................................................................39 v 4.3.1 Physical Hardware Configuration ...................................................................39 4.3.2 Virtual Machine Configuration .......................................................................40 4.4 Metrics ..................................................................................................................41 4.5 Test Configuration ................................................................................................42 4.6 Test Results ..........................................................................................................43 4.6.1 Phase Two Transfer Time ..............................................................................43 4.6.2 Overall Transfer Time ....................................................................................45 4.6.3 Preparation and Reassembly ..........................................................................49 Chapter 5: Security Analysis ..........................................................................................50 5.1 Overview and Methodology ...................................................................................50 5.2 Design Goals .........................................................................................................51 5.3 Components ..........................................................................................................51 5.3.1 Matchmaking ..................................................................................................51 5.3.2 DC Nets and Entanglement ............................................................................52 5.3.3 Metadata Distribution ....................................................................................53 5.3.4 BitTorrent and Reassembly ............................................................................53 5.4 Security Model ......................................................................................................53 5.4.1 Trust Model ....................................................................................................53 5.4.2 Threat and Attack Model ...............................................................................54 5.4.2.1 Privacy Compromise ................................................................................54 5.4.2.2: Content Alteration ..................................................................................57 vi 5.4.2.3 Network Disruption ..................................................................................59 5.4.3 Adversaries .....................................................................................................60 Chapter 6: Conclusions ...................................................................................................62 6.1: Overview ..............................................................................................................62 6.2 Performance ..........................................................................................................62