A Security Framework for Service Overlays: Operating in the Presence of Compromised Nodes

In this paper we explore an important issue for many overlay networks the presence of compromised nodes and how they affect the operation of the system. In overlay networks, compromised nodes can drop, delay or in other ways subvert user traffic and break protocols required for the successful operation of the system. We take a game theoretic approach to model the characteristics of a compromised node and an altruistic legitimate node who wishes to identify the compromised node. We first prove that the damage that can be done by the attacker has an upper bound. We then describe the operation of the system that can operate in the presence of compromised nodes by enforcing this upper bound on attacker damage.