In this paper, we present a distributed structured approach to Sybil attack. This is derived from the fact that our approach is based on the neighbor similarity trust relationship among the neighbor peers. Given a P2P e-commerce trust relationship based on interest, the transactions among peers are flexible as each peer can decide to trade with another peer any time. A peer doesn’t have to consult others in a group unless a recommendation is needed. This approach shows the advantage in exploiting the similarity trust relationship among peers in which the peers are able to monitor each other.
Our contribution in this paper is threefold:
1) We propose SybilTrust that can identify and protect honest peers from Sybil attack. The Sybil peers can have their trust canceled and dismissed from a group.
2) Based on the group infrastructure in P2P e-commerce, each neighbor is connected to the peers by the success of the transactions it makes or the trust evaluation level. A peer can only be recognized as a neighbor depending on whether or not trust level is sustained over a threshold value.
3) SybilTrust enables neighbor peers to carry recommendation identifiers among the peers in a group. This ensures that the group detection algorithms to identify Sybil attack peers to be efficient and scalable in large P2P e-commerce network. Neighbor Similarity Trust against Sybil Attack in P2P E-Commerce
Existing work on Sybil attack makes use of social networks to eliminate Sybil attack, and the findings are based on preventing Sybil identities. In this paper, we propose the use of neighbor similarity trust in a group P2P ecommerce based on interest relationships, to eliminate maliciousness among the peers. This is referred to as SybilTrust. In SybilTrust, the interest based group infrastructure peers have a neighbor similarity trust between each other, hence they are able to prevent Sybil attack. SybilTrust gives a better relationship in e-commerce transactions as the peers create a link between peer neighbors. This provides an important avenue for peers to advertise their products to other interested peers and to know new market destinations and contacts as well. In addition, the group enables a peer to join P2P e-commerce network and makes identity more difficult.
Peers use self-certifying identifiers that are exchanged when they initially come into contact. These can be used as public keys to verify digital signatures on the messages sent by their neighbors. We note that, all communications between peers are digitally signed. In this kind of relationship, we use neighbors as our point of reference to address Sybil attack. In a group, whatever admission we set, there are honest, malicious, and Sybil peers who are authenticated by an admission control mechanism to join the group. More honest peers are admitted compared to malicious peers, where the trust association is aimed at positive results. The knowledge of the graph may reside in a single party, or be distributed across all users.
In this paper, we assume there are three kinds of peers in the system: legitimate peers, malicious peers, and Sybil peers. Each malicious peer cheats its neighbors by creating multiple identity, referred to as Sybil peers. In this paper, P2P e-commerce communities are in several groups. A group can be either open or restrictive depending on the interest of the peers. We investigate the peers belonging to a certain interest group. In each group, there is a group leader who is responsible for managing coordination of activities in a group.
The principal building block of Sybil Trust approach is the identifier distribution process. In the approach, all the peers with similar behavior in a group can be used as identifier source. They can send identifiers to others as the system regulates. If a peer sends less or more, the system can be having a Sybil attack peer. The information can be broadcast to the rest of the peers in a group. When peers join a group, they acquire different identities in reference to the group. Each peer has neighbors in the group and outside the group. Sybil attack peers forged by the same malicious peer have the same set of physical neighbors that a malicious peer has.
Each neighbor is connected to the peers by the success of the transaction it makes or the trust evaluation level. To detect the Sybil attack, where a peer can have different identity, a peer is evaluated in reference to its trustworthiness and the similarity to the neighbors. If the neighbors do not have same trust data as the concerned peer, including its position, it can be detected that the peer has multiple identity and is cheating