The Forking Way: When TEEs Meet Consensus
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866909410660450304 |
|---|---|
| author | Wilde, Annika Gruel, Tim Niklas Soriente, Claudio Karame, Ghassan |
| author_facet | Wilde, Annika Gruel, Tim Niklas Soriente, Claudio Karame, Ghassan |
| contents | An increasing number of distributed platforms combine Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) with blockchains. Indeed, many hail the combination of TEEs and blockchains a good "marriage": TEEs bring confidential computing to the blockchain while the consensus layer could help defend TEEs from forking attacks.
In this paper, we systemize how current blockchain solutions integrate TEEs and to what extent they are secure against forking attacks. To do so, we thoroughly analyze 29 proposals for TEE-based blockchains, ranging from academic proposals to production-ready platforms. We uncover a lack of consensus in the community on how to combine TEEs and blockchains. In particular, we identify four broad means to interconnect TEEs with consensus, analyze their limitations, and discuss possible remedies. Our analysis also reveals previously undocumented forking attacks on three production-ready TEE-based blockchains: Ten, Phala, and the Secret Network. We leverage our analysis to propose effective countermeasures against those vulnerabilities; we responsibly disclosed our findings to the developers of each affected platform. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_00706 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Forking Way: When TEEs Meet Consensus Wilde, Annika Gruel, Tim Niklas Soriente, Claudio Karame, Ghassan Cryptography and Security An increasing number of distributed platforms combine Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) with blockchains. Indeed, many hail the combination of TEEs and blockchains a good "marriage": TEEs bring confidential computing to the blockchain while the consensus layer could help defend TEEs from forking attacks. In this paper, we systemize how current blockchain solutions integrate TEEs and to what extent they are secure against forking attacks. To do so, we thoroughly analyze 29 proposals for TEE-based blockchains, ranging from academic proposals to production-ready platforms. We uncover a lack of consensus in the community on how to combine TEEs and blockchains. In particular, we identify four broad means to interconnect TEEs with consensus, analyze their limitations, and discuss possible remedies. Our analysis also reveals previously undocumented forking attacks on three production-ready TEE-based blockchains: Ten, Phala, and the Secret Network. We leverage our analysis to propose effective countermeasures against those vulnerabilities; we responsibly disclosed our findings to the developers of each affected platform. |
| title | The Forking Way: When TEEs Meet Consensus |
| topic | Cryptography and Security |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00706 |