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arXiv:2110.10086cs.CR

Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum

Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Joachim Neu, Barnabé Monnot, Aditya Asgaonkar, Ertem Nusret Tas, David Tse

Abstract

Recently, two attacks were presented against Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Ethereum: one where short-range reorganizations of the underlying consensus chain are used to increase individual validators' profits and delay consensus decisions, and one where adversarial network delay is leveraged to stall consensus decisions indefinitely. We provide refined variants of these attacks, considerably relaxing the requirements on adversarial stake and network timing, and thus rendering the attacks more severe. Combining techniques from both refined attacks, we obtain a third attack which allows an adversary with vanishingly small fraction of stake and no control over network message propagation (assuming instead probabilistic message propagation) to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations. Honest-but-rational or ideologically motivated validators could use this attack to increase their profits or stall the protocol, threatening incentive alignment and security of PoS Ethereum. The attack can also lead to destabilization of consensus from congestion in vote processing.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.CRCryptography and Security

On Hacker News

Linked by 4 identifiable commenters in 4 comments across 4 threads, from Oct 2021 to Mar 2022. Found in 1 HN submission from Oct 2021 to Oct 2021. Open submission discussions.

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Discussed in comments4 threads

  1. Stripe Crypto 1 comment

    • I don't think we'll see practical attacks against it until one of the important ones goes PoS. I definitely agree with that. I think that's where PoS has some real weaknesses Sure, attacks and mitigations for them are actively being researched. A couple of examples…

      michaelsbradleyView on HNParent context

  2. Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated 1 comment

    • I don't know why you were flagged, but if your question was in earnest: Bitcoin almost certainly won't move. Because those touted energy efficient protocols come at the cost of much weaker security guarantees which undermine a key point of Bitcoin. Proof of stake, the forerunner…

      GosperView on HNParent context

  3. How badly is cryptocurrency worsening the chip shortage? 1 comment

    • More recently Vitalik has said Ethereum PoS is at least a couple of years away, likely due to new attack vectors that require further research https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.10086, one of which enables an attack with only 0.09% of the total staked. It would have been foolish to fork…

      gh55View on HNParent context

  4. Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum 1 comment

    • "Recently, two attacks were presented against Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Ethereum: one where short-range reorganizations of the underlying consensus chain are used to increase individual validators' profits and delay consensus decisions, and one where adversarial network delay is…

      belterView on HNParent context

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