A conservative strategy to protect P2P file sharing systems from pollution attacks

Despite being currently one of the main Internet applications, P2P file sharing has been hampered by content pollution attacks. To tackle this problem, we introduce a novel pollution control strategy that consists in adjusting the rate in which content is disseminated, according to content version reputation. The proposed strategy is modeled and evaluated using simplifying assumptions. Then, inspired by classic distributed designs, we propose a pollution control mechanism that implements such a strategy. The mechanism is evaluated in terms of the delays imposed on non‐polluted version dissemination, the effectiveness of reducing dissemination when the version is polluted, and the negative impact that collusion attacks can impose on the reputation system upon which our mechanism is built. Simulation results looking at scenarios with several hundred peers indicate that the pollution control mechanism can effectively reduce pollution without substantially affecting the dissemination of non‐polluted content. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.