Three Birds with One Stone: Efficient Partitioning Attacks on Interdependent Cryptocurrency Networks

Abstract

The biased distribution of cryptocurrency nodes across Autonomous Systems (ASes) increases the risk of spatial partitioning attacks, allowing an adversary to isolate nodes by hijacking AS prefixes. Prior works on spatial partitioning attacks have mainly focused on the Bitcoin network, showing that the prominent cryptocurrency network can be paralyzed by disrupting the physical topology through BGP hijacks.Despite the persisting threat of BGP hijacks, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have not been frequently targeted, likely due to their shielded overlay topology, which limits the exposure of physical network anomalies. In this paper, we present a new perspective by examining the security of cryptocurrency networks, considering shared network resources (network interdependence). We conduct measurements extending beyond the Bitcoin network and analyze commonalities in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple node hosting patterns. We observe that all three networks are highly centralized, predominantly sharing the common ASes. We also note that among the three cryptocurrencies, Ripple does not shield its overlay topology, which can be exploited to learn about the physical network anomalies. The observed network anomalies present practical attack strategies that can be launched to target all three cryptocurrencies simultaneously. 1 We supplement our analysis by surveying recent BGP attacks on high-profile ASes and recognizing a need for application-level countermeasures. We propose attack countermeasures that reduce the risk of spatial partitioning, notwithstanding the increasing centralization of nodes and network interdependence.