Open AccessAnalysis of the effect of InfoRanking on content pollution in peer‐to‐peer systems
Author(s) -
Zhang P.,
Fotiou N.,
Helvik B. E.,
Marias G. F.,
Polyzos G. C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
security and communication networks
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1939-0122
pISSN - 1939-0114
DOI - 10.1002/sec.773
Subject(s) - computer science , file sharing , peer to peer , computer security , pollution , content (measure theory) , ranking (information retrieval) , internet privacy , sanity , world wide web , information retrieval , the internet , law , mathematical analysis , mathematics , ecology , political science , biology
Content pollution is one of the most common attacks against peer‐to‐peer file‐sharing systems. As such, systems are usually open to users, and the deployed security mechanisms merely examine the sanity of the downloaded files—content pollution attacks can be easily launched. InfoRanking is a mechanism that tries to mitigate this security risk by ranking content items. In this paper, we show through analysis, fluid modeling, and simulation that when InfoRanking is used, attackers can deceive users only when they share corrupted copies of legitimate file versions. Nevertheless, as corrupted files can be immediately detected after being downloaded, this attack is only effective when users enter the system at very low rate and leave relatively fast. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.