P2P Reputation Management Using Distributed Identities and Decentralized Recommendation Chains

Abstract:

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are vulnerable to peers who cheat, propagate malicious code, leech on the network, or simply do not cooperate. The traditional security techniques developed for the centralized distributed systems like client-server networks are insufficient for P2P networks by the virtue of their centralized nature. The absence of a central authority in a P2P network poses unique challenges for reputation management in the network. These challenges include identity management of the peers, secure reputation data management, Sybil attacks, and above all, availability of reputation data. In this paper, we present a cryptographic protocol for ensuring secure and timely availability of the reputation data of a peer to other peers at extremely low costs. The past behavior of the peer is encapsulated in its digital reputation, and is subsequently used to predict its future actions. As a result, a peer’s reputation motivates it to cooperate and desist from malicious activities. The cryptographic protocol is coupled with self-certification and cryptographic mechanisms for identity management and countering Sybil attack. We illustrate the security and the efficiency of the system analytically and by means of simulations in a completely decentralized Gnutella-like P2P network.

Existing systems:

The Existing systems for generating trust and protecting client-server networks cannot be used for pure1 P2P networks. This is because the trusted central authority used in the Existing systems client-server networks is absent in P2P networks. Introduction of a central trusted authority like a Certificate Authority (CA) can reduce the difficulty of securing P2P networks. The major disadvantage of the centralized approach is, if the central authority turns malicious, the network will become vulnerable. In the absence of any central authority, repository, or global information, there is no silver bullet for securing P2P networks.

Proposed systems:

In  Reputation Systems for P2P networks—a more ambitious approach to protect the P2P network without using any central component, and thereby harnessing the full benefits of the P2P network. The reputations of the peers are used to determine whether a peer is a malicious peer or a good peer. All peers in the P2P network are identified by identity certificates (aka identity). The reputation of a given peer is attached to its identity. The identity certificates are generated using self-certification, and all peers maintain their own (and hence trusted) certificate authority which issues the identity certificate(s) to the peer. Each peer owns the reputation information pertaining to all its past transactions with other peers in the network, and stores it locally. transactions in the network, but also generates significantly less network traffic as compared to other reputation-based security solutions for P2P networks.

System requirement specification:

Hardware Requirement:-

            Hard Disk                   -           20 GB

            Monitor                       -           15’ Color with VGI card support

            RAM                           -           Minimum 256 MB

            Processor                     -           Pentium III and Above (or) Equivalent

            Processor speed           -           Minimum 500 MHz

Software Requirement:-

            Operating System       -           Windows XP

            Front End                    -           java     

            Database                     -           SQL Server 2000