Security Analysis of Bitcoin's V2 Transport Protocol: Exploiting Design Implications for Sustained Eclipse and Downgrade Attacks

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2605.19715v1
• Date: Tue, 19 May 2026 11:50:57 GMT
• Title: Security Analysis of Bitcoin's V2 Transport Protocol: Exploiting Design Implications for Sustained Eclipse and Downgrade Attacks
• Abstract summary: Bitcoin introduced a new protocol for the encryption of peer-to-peer (P2P) communication.<n>This work examines the current viability of said attacks and concludes that while they are now remediated, alternative attacks and paths to similar objectives exist.
• Score: 2.0625936401496237
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Bitcoin recently introduced a new protocol for the encryption of peer-to-peer (P2P) communication. The protocol, known as V2 P2P transport, represents a big step towards securing the overlay network against various previously-known attack vectors. Based on an analysis of V2 P2P transport, this work examines the current viability of said attacks and concludes that while they are now remediated, alternative attacks and paths to similar objectives exist. The identified shortcomings are conceptual (and not implementation bugs) and even applicable to other P2P networks. We show how a network-level attacker can identify application messages using the length of TCP payloads, can eclipse a target node by taking advantage of how encrypted communication channels work and can downgrade all of a node's connections to the unencrypted protocol by using the mechanisms designed for compatibility. We validate our contributions using a combination of network measurements, emulations and simulations. Finally, we propose a series of short-term and long-term countermeasures towards securing Bitcoin's P2P network. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study Bitcoin's security under V2 P2P transport.

Related papers

• Quantum secure blind decryption with two users [41.41659382286553]
  We propose two types of protocols for quantum secure blind decryption.<n>Users ensure the secrecy of the text from the servers.<n>Servers maintain the secrecy of the keys from the users.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-06-01T09:10:00Z)
• Cryptographic Backdoor for Neural Networks: Boon and Bane [3.276616928313739]
  We show that cryptographic backdoors in a neural network (NN) can be highly effective in two directions.<n>On the attack side, a carefully planted cryptographic backdoor enables powerful and invisible attack on the NN.<n>Considering the defense, we present applications: first, a provably robust NN watermarking scheme; second, a protocol for guaranteeing user authentication; and third, a protocol for tracking unauthorized sharing of the NN intellectual property (IP)
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-09-25T03:27:46Z)
• Voting-Based Semi-Parallel Proof-of-Work Protocol [45.776687601070705]
  We first consider the existing parallel PoW protocols and develop hard-coded incentive attack structures.<n>We introduce a voting-based semi-parallel PoW protocol that outperforms both Nakamoto consensus and the existing parallel PoW protocols.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-08T17:57:35Z)
• Initial Evidence of Elevated Reconnaissance Attacks Against Nodes in P2P Overlay Networks [0.9003384937161055]
  We investigate the state of active reconnaissance attacks on P2P network nodes by deploying a series of honeypots alongside actual nodes across globally distributed vantage points.<n>We find that nodes experience not only increased attacks, but also specific types of attacks targeting particular ports and services.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-11-21T22:56:16Z)
• Towards efficient and secure quantum-classical communication networks [47.27205216718476]
  There are two primary approaches to achieving quantum-resistant security: quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) We introduce the pros and cons of these protocols and explore how they can be combined to achieve a higher level of security and/or improved performance in key distribution. We hope our discussion inspires further research into the design of hybrid cryptographic protocols for quantum-classical communication networks.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-11-01T23:36:19Z)
• The Latency Price of Threshold Cryptosystem in Blockchains [52.359230560289745]
  We study the interplay between threshold cryptography and a class of blockchains that use Byzantine-fault tolerant (BFT) consensus protocols.<n>Our measurements from the Aptos mainnet show that the optimistic approach reduces latency overhead by 71%.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-07-16T20:53:04Z)
• Payout Races and Congested Channels: A Formal Analysis of Security in the Lightning Network [8.397189036839956]
  The Lightning Network is a payment channel network designed to resolve Bitcoin's scalability issues through fast off-chain transactions. Several vulnerabilities have been manually discovered, but to-date there have been few works systematically analyzing the security of the Lightning Network. We take a foundational approach to analyzing the security of the Lightning Network with the help of formal methods.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-03T14:52:47Z)
• Larger-scale Nakamoto-style Blockchains Don't Necessarily Offer Better Security [1.2644625435032817]
  Research on Nakamoto-style consensus protocols has shown that network delays degrade the security of these protocols. This contradicts the very foundation of blockchains, namely that decentralization improves security. We take a closer look at how the network scale affects security of Nakamoto-style blockchains.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-04-15T16:09:41Z)
• A Survey and Comparative Analysis of Security Properties of CAN Authentication Protocols [92.81385447582882]
  The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus leaves in-vehicle communications inherently non-secure. This paper reviews and compares the 15 most prominent authentication protocols for the CAN bus. We evaluate protocols based on essential operational criteria that contribute to ease of implementation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-19T14:52:04Z)
• Tikuna: An Ethereum Blockchain Network Security Monitoring System [0.0]
  This paper focuses on protecting the lowest level layer in the blockchain, particularly the P2P network that allows the nodes to communicate and share information. The P2P network layer may be vulnerable to several families of attacks, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), eclipse attacks, or Sybil attacks. We introduce Tikuna, an open-source tool for monitoring and detecting potential attacks on the blockchain P2P network, at an early stage.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-13T15:39:50Z)
• Quantum Multi-Solution Bernoulli Search with Applications to Bitcoin's Post-Quantum Security [67.06003361150228]
  A proof of work (PoW) is an important cryptographic construct enabling a party to convince others that they invested some effort in solving a computational task. In this work, we examine the hardness of finding such chain of PoWs against quantum strategies. We prove that the chain of PoWs problem reduces to a problem we call multi-solution Bernoulli search, for which we establish its quantum query complexity.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-12-30T18:03:56Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.