Iris: Dynamic Privacy Preserving Search in Authenticated Chord Peer-to-Peer Networks
Angeliki Aktypi
Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 2025 · Day 3 · Privacy Preservation
In the realm of decentralized systems, **Chord peer-to-peer (P2P) networks** have long been lauded for their efficiency and simplicity in managing distributed key-value stores. They form the backbone of various real-world applications, from decentralized search engines like Sik to blockchain protocols such as NKN, and even serve as a lookup service for Tor onion services. However, a fundamental challenge persists: the inherent transparency of search queries. When a node initiates a search for a specific key, the standard Chord routing protocol necessitates revealing the target key at every hop along the path to the responsible node. This critical vulnerability allows malicious actors, by merely participating in the network and observing traffic, to profile users, infer popular data, or gain insights into network usage patterns.
AI review
Clean academic systems security paper with a well-scoped problem and a novel metric. Iris solves a real and underappreciated issue in Chord-based deployments, but the practical footprint of Chord in 2024 is narrow enough that the blast radius is limited. Solid NDSS material; not a DEF CON headline.