Related papers: RANDAO-based RNG: Last Revealer Attacks in Ethereu…
It is well-known that RANDAO manipulation is possible in Ethereum if an adversary controls the proposers assigned to the last slots in an epoch. We provide a methodology to compute, for any fraction $\alpha$ of stake owned by an adversary,…
We outline two dishonest strategies that can be cheaply executed on the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain, even by validators holding less than one-third of the total stake: malicious chain reorganizations ("reorgs") and finality delays. In a…
Modern cryptography, such as Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), has been designed by humans based on our understanding of cryptographic methods. Neural Network (NN) based cryptography is being investigated due to…
The long-term success of cryptocurrencies largely depends on the incentive compatibility provided to the validators. Bribery attacks, facilitated trustlessly via smart contracts, threaten this foundation. This work introduces, implements,…
Ethereum smart contracts are programs that are deployed and executed in a consensus-based blockchain managed by a peer-to-peer network. Several re-entrancy attacks that aim to steal Ether, the cryptocurrency used in Ethereum, stored in…
Simple commit-reveal beacons are vulnerable to last-revealer strategies, and existing descriptions often leave accountability and recovery mechanisms unspecified for practical deployments. We present Commit-Reveal$^2$, a layered design for…
Buoyed by the excitement around secure decentralized applications, the last few decades have seen numerous constructions of distributed randomness beacons (DRB) along with use cases; however, a secure DRB (in many variations) remains an…
Current LLM-based frameworks for text anonymization usually rely on remote API services from powerful LLMs, which creates an inherent privacy paradox: users must disclose the raw data to untrusted third parties for guaranteed privacy…
Ethereum 2.0 is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and a widely used smart contract platform. Therefore, examining the reliability of Ethereum 2.0's incentive mechanism is crucial, particularly its effectiveness in…
Random number generators (RNG) are an important resource in many areas: cryptography (both quantum and classical), probabilistic computation (Monte Carlo methods), numerical simulations, industrial testing and labeling, hazard games,…
Validators in permissionless, large-scale blockchains, such as Ethereum, are typically payoff-maximizing, rational actors. Ethereum relies on in-protocol incentives, like rewards for correct and timely votes, to induce honest behavior and…
The adversary's goal in mounting Long Range Attacks (LRAs) is to fool potential victims into using and relying on a side chain, i.e., a false, alternate history of transactions, and into proposing transactions that end up harming themselves…
Ethereum is a decentralized Blockchain system that supports the execution of Turing-complete smart contracts. Although the security of the Ethereum ecosystem has been studied in the past, the network layer has been mostly neglected. We show…
Randomness plays a vital role in numerous applications, including simulation, cryptography, distributed systems, and gaming. Consequently, extensive research has been conducted to generate randomness. One such method is to design a…
Random number generation (RNG) is a crucial element in security protocols, and its performance and reliability are critical for the safety and integrity of digital systems. This is especially true in 5G networks with many devices with low…
Machine learning relies on randomness as a fundamental component in various steps such as data sampling, data augmentation, weight initialization, and optimization. Most machine learning frameworks use pseudorandom number generators as the…
Recommender systems (RSs) are now fundamental to various online platforms, but their dependence on user-contributed data leaves them vulnerable to shilling attacks that can manipulate item rankings by injecting fake users. Although widely…
Blockchain systems, such as Ethereum, are increasingly adopting layer-2 scaling solutions to improve transaction throughput and reduce fees. One popular layer-2 approach is the Optimistic Rollup, which relies on a mechanism known as a…
We hypothesize that peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network nodes can be attractive to attackers due to their visibility, sustained uptime, and resource potential. Towards validating this hypothesis, we investigate the state of active…
Smart contracts, the stateful programs running on blockchains, often rely on reports. Publishers are paid to publish these reports on the blockchain. Designing protocols that incentivize timely reporting is the prevalent reporting problem.…