Analyzing Impacts of Peer-to-Peer Systems on Propagation of Active Worm Attacks

Recent active worm propagation events show that active worms can spread in an automated fashion and flood the Internet in a very short period of time. Due to the recent surge of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems with large numbers of users, P2P systems can be a potential vehicle for the active worm attacker to achieve fast worm propagation in the Internet. In this paper, we address the issue by studying the impact of P2P systems on propagation of active worm attacks. In particular: 1) we define the P2P-based attack model and study two P2P-based attack strategies; 2) we develop an analytical approach to analyze the impact of P2P-based attack mechanisms and P2P related factors such as size, vulnerability, topology degree, and the structured/unstructured property. Based on numerical results, we observe that a P2P-based attack can significantly worsen attack effects (improve the attack performance) and some P2P related parameters also have an impact on worm attack effects. Our initial work is the first study providing the guidance for P2P systems to address worm attack concerns. Keywords—P2P System, Active Worm Attack