SplitBFT: Improving Byzantine Fault Tolerance Safety Using Trusted Compartments

Messadi I, Becker MH, Bleeke K, Jehl L, Mokhtar SB, Kapitza R (2022)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2022

Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

Pages Range: 56-68

Conference Proceedings Title: Middleware 2022 - Proceedings of the 23rd ACM/IFIP International Middleware Conference

Event location: Quebec, QC CA

ISBN: 9781450393409

DOI: 10.1145/3528535.3531516

Abstract

Byzantine fault-tolerant agreement (BFT) in a partially synchronous system usually requires 3f + 1 nodes to tolerate f faulty replicas. Due to their high throughput and finality property, BFT algorithms build the core of recent permissioned blockchains. As a complex and resource-demanding infrastructure, multiple cloud providers have started offering Blockchain-as-a-Service. This eases the deployment of permissioned blockchains but places the cloud provider in a central controlling position, thereby questioning blockchains' fault tolerance and decentralization properties and their underlying BFT algorithm. This paper presents SplitBFT, a new way to utilize trusted execution technology (TEEs), such as Intel SGX, to harden the safety and confidentiality guarantees of BFT systems, thereby strengthening the trust in could-based deployments of permissioned blockchains. Deviating from standard assumptions, SplitBFT acknowledges that code protected by trusted execution may fail. We address this by splitting and isolating the core logic of BFT protocols into multiple compartments resulting in a more resilient architecture. We apply SplitBFT to the traditional practical byzantine fault tolerance algorithm (PBFT) and evaluate it using SGX. Our results show that SplitBFT adds only a reasonable overhead compared to the non-compartmentalized variant.

Authors with CRIS profile

Ines Messadi
Rüdiger Kapitza

Related research project(s)

PRIMaTE: PRIvacy preserving Multi-compartment Trusted Execution (PRIMaTE) Oct. 16, 2017 - Aug. 31, 2023

Involved external institutions

Laboratoire d'Informatique en Image et Systèmes d'Information FR France (FR) Technische Universität Braunschweig DE Germany (DE) University of Stavanger / Universitetet i Stavanger NO Norway (NO)

How to cite

APA:

Messadi, I., Becker, M.H., Bleeke, K., Jehl, L., Mokhtar, S.B., & Kapitza, R. (2022). SplitBFT: Improving Byzantine Fault Tolerance Safety Using Trusted Compartments. In Middleware 2022 - Proceedings of the 23rd ACM/IFIP International Middleware Conference (pp. 56-68). Quebec, QC, CA: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

MLA:

Messadi, Ines, et al. "SplitBFT: Improving Byzantine Fault Tolerance Safety Using Trusted Compartments." Proceedings of the 23rd ACM/IFIP International Middleware Conference, Middleware 2022, Quebec, QC Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2022. 56-68.

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