A survey of peer-to-peer security issues

Abstract

Peer-to-peer (p2p) networking technologies have gained popularity as a mechanism for users to share files without the need for centralized servers. A p2p network provides a scalable and fault-tolerant mechanism to locate nodes anywhere on a network without maintaining a large amount of routing state. This allows for a variety of applications beyond simple file sharing. Examples include multicast systems, anonymous communications systems, and web caches. We survey security issues that occur in the underlying p2p routing protocols, as well as fairness and trust issues that occur in file sharing and other p2p applications. We discuss how techniques, ranging from cryptography, to random network probing, to economic incentives, can be used to address these problems. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.