Explained: Eclipse attacks on blockchains and how to stop them

cnbctv18.com:

Eclipse attacks isolate a node on the network and eclipse its view of the other nodes. The attacker then floods the network with illegitimate nodes, which then communicate with the infected node.

This redirected inbound and outbound traffic ensures that the attacked node is alienated from the rest of the network.Once the secluded node is disconnected from the blockchain ledger, attackers can then falsely validate transactions on the blockchain. Such attacks severely disrupt network traffic.However, the efficacy of the eclipse attack depends on the efficiency of the attacked blockchain itself.

Further, blockchains encourage decentralisation by design, and their security protocols generally ward off such attacks. That is why eclipse attacks are a rare sight these days.How does an Eclipse Attack work?Eclipse attacks can be executed on blockchains with bandwidth limitations that prevent all nodes from communicating with each other.

Blockchain clients running on less powerful devices impede the communication of nodes, thus creating a vulnerability to eclipse attacks. Once compromised, the hacker only needs to work with a small set of nodes that the infected node communicates with.Also Read | Is the XX messenger the future of private communication?In order to pull off something like this, attackers deploy a ‘botnet’ which is simply a network hosted by other devices infected with the attacker’s malware.

These attacker-controlled nodes then infuse numerous IP addresses into the target network, which are nothing but the addresses of the attacker’s rogue nodes. When the invaded device reconnects with the blockchain, it connects with these malicious nodes.These attacks are called Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and can