Exploring the Attack Surface of Blockchain: A Comprehensive Survey

【Author】 Saad, Muhammad; Spaulding, Jeffrey; Njilla, Laurent; Kamhoua, Charles; Shetty, Sachin; Nyang, DaeHun; Mohaisen, David

【Source】IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS AND TUTORIALS

【影响因子】33.840

【Abstract】In this paper, we systematically explore the attack surface of the Blockchain technology, with an emphasis on public Blockchains. Towards this goal, we attribute attack viability in the attack surface to 1) the Blockchain cryptographic constructs, 2) the distributed architecture of the systems using Blockchain, and 3) the Blockchain application context. To each of those contributing factors, we outline several attacks, including selfish mining, the 51 attack, DNS attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, consensus delay (due to selfish behavior or distributed denial-of-service attacks), Blockchain forks, orphaned and stale blocks, block ingestion, wallet thefts, smart contract attacks, and privacy attacks. We also explore the causal relationships between these attacks to demonstrate how various attack vectors are connected to one another. A secondary contribution of this work is outlining effective defense measures taken by the Blockchain technology or proposed by researchers to mitigate the effects of these attacks and patch associated vulnerabilities.

【Keywords】Blockchain; Bitcoin; Delays; Smart contracts; Computer crime; Blockchain; security; attack surface; applications; peer-to-peer systems

【发表时间】2020

【收录时间】2022-01-02

【文献类型】综述

【主题类别】

区块链治理-技术治理-区块链安全