A Place for Everyone vs Everyone in its Place: Measuring and Attacking the Ethereum Global Network

Chenyu Li; Ren Zhang; Xiaorui Gong

Paper 2025/588

A Place for Everyone vs Everyone in its Place: Measuring and Attacking the Ethereum Global Network

Chenyu Li, Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Cyber Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ren Zhang

, Cryptape and Nervos

Xiaorui Gong, Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Cyber Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The Ethereum Global Network (EGN) is the peer-to-peer (P2P) network underlying Ethereum and thousands of subsequent blockchain services. Deviating from traditional single-service P2P networks, EGN's multi-service architecture has gained widespread acceptance for supposedly improving node discovery efficiency and security. This paper challenges this belief by critically examining EGN's design and its purported benefits. Our analysis reveals significant shortcomings in EGN's node discovery process. EGN nodes struggle to connect with peers offering the desired service: over three-quarters of connection attempts reach nodes of other services. In an extreme case, one node spent an average of connection attempts to find each neighbor. Moreover, this blended architecture compromises EGN's security. The network demonstrates high susceptibility to DHT pollution and partition attacks. Even with only malicious nodes in EGN, an attacker can isolate thousands of nodes, significantly hindering recovery. In contrast, such a small number of malicious nodes has minimal impact on every single-service P2P network. We propose solutions to improve EGN's node discovery efficiency and strengthen its resilience against attacks.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Cryptographic protocols
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: Ethereum P2P network node discovery
Contact author(s): lichenyu1999 @ iie ac cn
ren @ cryptape com
gongxiaorui @ iie ac cn
History: 2025-04-04: approved; 2025-04-01: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2025/588
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/588,
      author = {Chenyu Li and Ren Zhang and Xiaorui Gong},
      title = {A Place for Everyone vs Everyone in its Place: Measuring and Attacking the Ethereum Global Network},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/588},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/588}
}