BitTorrent protocol encryption: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:01, 5 February 2006

Revision as of 22:58, 5 February 2006

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{{Current}}

'''Protocol header encrypt''' ('''PHE'''){{ref|name}}, '''Message stream encryption''' ('''MSE'''), or '''Protocol encryption''' ('''PE''') are features of some [[BitTorrent]] clients that attempt to make BitTorrent hard to throttle. Some [[Internet service provider|ISP]]s throttle BitTorrent traffic because it makes up a large porportion of total traffic and the ISPs don't want to spend money buying extra capacity. Instead, the ISPs spend money on hardware that look for BitTorrent traffic and slow them down.

==History==

Protocol header encryptencryption was conceived by [[RnySmile]] and first implemented in the [[BitComet]] client version 0.60 on [[8 September]] [[2005]]. Some software like IPP2P claims BitComet is detectable even with PHE[http://www.ipp2p.org/news_en.html] Since there are no open specifications to this protocol implementation the only possiblity to support it would have been via [[reverse engineering]].

In late January 2006 the [[Azureus]] developers decided to design and simultanously implement a new, open protocol obfuscation method. It was included in Azureus CVS snapshot 2307-B29 on [[19 January]] [[2006]].

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Azureus supports the final spec since [[25 January]] [[2006]] (CVS snapshot 2307-B33) [http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=14596518] and µTorrent followed 4 days later with beta 1.4.1 build 407. The new protocol is called MSE in Azureus and PE in µTorrent.

[[Bram Cohen]], the inventor of [[BitTorrent]], recently commented disfavouring on the ongoing development to obfuscate the BitTorrent protocol. [http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/29886.html] Encrypted BitTorrent users quickly pointed out flaws in his reasoning. [http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=5742]

==Operation==

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The estimated strength of the encryption is around 60-80 bits symmetrical (see [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3526.html RFC3526] chapter 8). This is quite low for today's standards but one has to keep in mind that this protocol wasn't designed as a secure transport protocol but as fast and efficient obfuscation method.

==Note==

#{{note|name}} - It is usually referred to as the more correct ''protocol header encryption'' instead of the official name.

==External link==

*[http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/index.php/Message_Stream_Encryption Description on the official Azureus wiki]