Byzantine-Tolerant, Point-To-Point Information Propagation in Untrustworthy and Unreliable Networks

In a decentralized network system, an authenticated node is referred to as a Byzantine node, if it is fully controlled by a traitor or an adversary, and can perform destructive behavior to disrupt the system. Typically, Byzantine nodes together or individually attack point-to-point information propagation by denying or faking messages. In this paper, we assume that Byzantine nodes are of some intelligence — that is, they can protect themselves from being identified by authentication mechanisms, including encryption mechanisms. Therefore, a node cannot trust any other node in the system. We present an authentication-free, gossip-based application-level propagation mechanism called LASIRC, in which “healthy” nodes utilize Byzantine features to defend against Byzantine attacks. We show that LASIRC is robust against message-denying and message-faking attacks. Our experimental studies verify LASIRC’s effectiveness.