Agyaat: mutual anonymity over structured P2P networks

Aameek Singh, Bugra Gedik, Ling Liu, Stefanos Gritzalis
2006 Internet Research  
Purpose -To provide mutual anonymity over traditionally un-anonymous Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) based Peer-to-Peer overlay networks, while maintaining the desired scalability and guaranteed lookup properties of the DHTs. Design/methodology/approach -Agyaat uses a novel hybrid-overlay design, a fully decentralized topology without any trusted proxies. It anonymizes both the querying and responding peers through the use of unstructured topologies, called clouds, which are added onto the
more » ... red overlays. In addition, it regulates the cloud topologies to ensure the guaranteed location of data and scalability of routing. A unique characteristic of the design is the ability of users to tradeoff between desired anonymity and performance. The paper presents a thorough performance and anonymity analysis of the system, and also analyzes few anonymity compromising attacks and countermeasures. Findings -The results indicate that Agyaat is able to provide mutual anonymity while maintaining the scalability of lookups, affecting the costs only by a constant factor. Research limitations/implications -While Agyaat is able to meet its mutual anonymity and performance goals, there exist other security vulnerabilities like possible Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, both due to its design and the underlying DHT overlay. This is fertile ground for future work. Originality/value -Agyaat uses a novel topology architecture and associated protocols that are conducive to providing mutually anonymous services.
doi:10.1108/10662240610656519 fatcat:pdkupuurlfg7dhhehhr6mwmhaa