GossipSub: Attack-Resilient Message Propagation in the Filecoin and ETH2.0 Networks

TL;DR

GossipSub is a novel gossip-based pubsub protocol designed for blockchain networks that offers attack resilience, efficient message propagation, and peer selection, demonstrated through large-scale testing and integration into Filecoin and ETH2.0.

Contribution

It introduces a resilient gossip protocol with tailored mitigation strategies, improving message propagation and attack resistance in permissionless blockchain environments.

Findings

Resilient against various Sybil-based attacks

Effective in large-scale testbed with 5000+ nodes

Integrated into Filecoin and ETH2.0 as main messaging layer

Abstract

Permissionless blockchain environments necessitate the use of a fast and attack-resilient message propagation protocol for Block and Transaction messages to keep nodes synchronised and avoid forks. We present GossipSub, a gossip-based pubsub protocol, which, in contrast to past pubsub protocols, incorporates resilience against a wide spectrum of attacks. Firstly, GossipSub's mesh construction implements an eager push model keeps the fan-out of the pubsub delivery low and balances excessive bandwidth consumption and fast message propagation throughout the mesh. Secondly, through gossip dissemination, GossipSub realises a lazy-pull model to reach nodes far-away or outside the mesh. Thirdly, through constant observation, nodes maintain a score profile for the peers they are connected to, allowing them to choose the most well-behaved nodes to include in the mesh. Finally, and most importantly, a number of tailor-made mitigation strategies designed specifically for these three components make GossipSub resilient against the most challenging Sybil-based attacks. We test GossipSub in a testbed environment involving more than 5000 VM nodes deployed on AWS and show that it stays immune to all considered attacks. GossipSub is currently being integrated as the main messaging layer protocol in the Filecoin and the Ethereum 2.0 (ETH2.0) blockchains.