Author: J Ross Nicoll 2014-08-19 23:38:31
Published on: 2014-08-19T23:38:31+00:00
In a Bitcoin-development mailing list, the topic of encrypted communication between nodes was discussed. The concern raised was that if traffic in and out of a single node is monitored, it becomes possible to determine which transactions originate from it versus those which it relays. However, it was questioned how many nodes require that level of security and suggested that they could use Tor or VPN services instead. Additionally, unless remote nodes are trusted, the attack changes from read-only to requiring the ability to perform a man-in-the-middle attack. It was noted that recent serious OpenSSL bugs should be taken into consideration as well. One member of the discussion stated that he could see the value of having authenticated traffic with specific nodes using an HMAC for the protocol messages in place of the current checksum. Overall, it was concluded that the risk/reward payoff of encrypted communications between nodes did not seem worthwhile.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T02:13:26.687996+00:00