RouteChain: Towards Blockchain-based secure and efficient BGP routing

Abstract

Routing on the Internet is defined among autonomous systems (ASes) based on a weak trust model where it is assumed that ASes are honest. While this trust model strengthens the connectivity among ASes, it also results in an attack surface that can be exploited to hijack the routing paths. One such attack is known as the BGP prefix hijacking, in which a malicious AS broadcasts IP prefixes that belong to a target AS, thereby hijacking its traffic. In this paper, we propose RouteChain: a blockchain-based secure BGP routing system that counters BGP hijacking and maintains a consistent view of the Internet routing paths. Towards that, we leverage provenance assurance and tamper-proof properties of blockchains to augment trust among ASes. We group ASes based on their geographical (network) proximity and construct a bi-hierarchical blockchain model that detects false prefixes prior to their spread over the Internet. We evaluate RouteChain using three different consensus protocols and show its effectiveness by drawing a case study with the Youtube hijacking of 2008. Our results show that RouteChain can efficiently detect false prefix announcements and prevent BGP attacks over the Internet.