BitTorrent Developers Introduce Comcast Busting Encryption
Written by Ernesto on February 15, 2008Several BitTorrent developers have joined forces to propose a new protocol extension with the ability to bypass the BitTorrent interfering techniques used by Comcast and other ISPs. This new form of encryption will be implemented in BitTorrent clients including uTorrent, so Comcast subscribers are free to share again.
BitTorrent throttling is not a new phenomenon, ISPs have been doing it for years. When the first ISPs started to throttle BitTorrent traffic most BitTorrent clients introduced a countermeasure, namely, protocol header encryption. This was the beginning of an ongoing cat and mouse game between ISPs and BitTorrent client developers, which is about to enter new level.
Unfortunately, protocol header encryption doesn’t help against more aggressive forms of BitTorrent interference, like the Sandvine application used by Comcast. A new extension to the BitTorrent protocol is needed to stay ahead of the ISPs, and that is exactly what is happening right now.
Back in August we were the first to report that Comcast was actively disconnecting BitTorrent seeds. Comcast of course denied our allegations, and ever since there has been a lot of debate about the rights and wrongs of Comcast’s actions. On Wednesday, Comcast explained their BitTorrent interference to the FCC in a 57-page filing. Unfortunately they haven’t stopped lying yet, since they now argue that they only delay BitTorrent traffic, while in fact they disconnect people, making it impossible for them to share files with non-Comcast users.
In short, the Comcast interference works like this: A few seconds after you connect to someone in a BitTorrent swarm, a peer reset message (RST flag) is sent by Comcast and the upload immediately stops. Most vulnerable are users in a relatively small swarm where you only have a couple of peers you can upload the file to.
For the networking savvy people among us, here’s an example of real RST interference (video) on a regular BitTorrent connection. In this case, the reset happens immediately after the bitfields are exchanged. Evil? Yes - but there is hope.
The goal of this new type of encryption (or obfuscation) is to prevent ISPs from blocking or disrupting BitTorrent traffic connections that span between the receiver of a tracker response and any peer IP-port appearing in that tracker response, according to the proposal.
“This extension directly addresses a known attack on the BitTorrent protocol performed by some deployed network hardware. By obscuring the ip-port pairs network hardware can no longer easily identify ip-port pairs that are running BitTorrent by observing peer-to-tracker communications. This deployed hardware under some conditions disrupts BitTorrent connections by injecting forged TCP reset packets. Once a BitTorrent connection has been identified, other attacks could be performed such as severely rate limiting or blocking these connections.”
So, the new tracker peer obfuscation technique is especially designed to be a workaround for throttling devices, such as the Sandvine application that Comcast uses. More details on the proposal can be found at BitTorrent.org, which aims to become a coordination platform for BitTorrent developers.
TorrentFreak talked to Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent Inc. who has some of his employees working on the new extension. He told us: “There are some ISPs who would like people to believe that “slowing down” BitTorrent or “metering” bandwidth consumption serves the greater good. Consumers should be very weary of this claim.”
“In recent months, consumers enjoyed unprecedented participation in the political process thanks to the ability to upload opinions and feedback in the YouTube presidential debates. Musicians, filmmakers and artists are finding ways to connect with their audiences across the world thanks to MySpace and BitTorrent. Students are engaging with interactive learning tools in their schools. Which bandwidth intensive application will banned or shaped or metered next by these ISPs? The creative spirit of millions has been ignited, and our need to participate, to communicate will not be silenced.”
“The US government should encourage ISPs to innovate and invest in their networks,” Ashwin said. “Permitting them to interfere or interrupt in the communications of consumers, to protect ISP profit margins, would be a tremendous set back for our country and economy, when we are already slipping behind the first world (UK, EU, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc) in its broadband capacity.”
We wholeheartedly agree with Ashwin on this one, as we’ve said before. The Internet is only a few years old, if the plan is to keep using it in the future, ISPs need to upgrade their networks. So, invest in more Internet gateway capacity, 10Gbps interconnect ports, and peering agreements. BitTorrent users are not the problem, they only signal that the ISPs need to upgrade their capacity, because customers will only get more demanding in the future. The Internet is not only about sending email, and browsing on text based websites anymore.
The new protocol extension is still under development, but the goal is of course, to get it out as soon as possible.
Hang on…
Previously: Village People Hire Web Sheriff for Assault on The Pirate Bay, ABBA on Standby
Next: PRQ Fire Takes Down Several Torrent Sites
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@kami
you say to stop using comcast… sadly, the world is not always that simple. in some areas in the united states, comcast is a monopoly and if you want internet, you get it through comcast. or, you can get dial-up. but i and many other people would rather be beaten senseless (repeatedly) than go back to dial-up. besides, have you ever tried downloading a movie on dial-up? i have, and the beatings get my vote again.
it seems that this Peer Obfuscation subject recently got far more serious for the whole UK market place and the govt wish to legislate if the ISPs dont comply.
what will the developers do now?, stand by and wait, or place an all Peer Obfuscation in place ASAP, even to other connected peers to hide the users IP etc?.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/burnham_dcms_filesharing/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/burnham_dcms_filesharing/comments/
a fully Encypted Muticasting tunnel is looking like a very good thing to many (UK)P2p users right now, will you step up and make it hapen?.
[quote comment="296748"]it seems that this Peer Obfuscation subject recently got far more serious for the whole UK market place and the govt wish to legislate if the ISPs dont comply.
what will the developers do now?, stand by and wait, or place an all Peer Obfuscation in place ASAP, even to other connected peers to hide the users IP etc?.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/burnham_dcms_filesharing/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/burnham_dcms_filesharing/comments/
a fully Encypted Muticasting tunnel is looking like a very good thing to many (UK)P2p users right now, will you step up and make it hapen?.[/quote]
[quote comment="295621"]@kami
you say to stop using comcast… sadly, the world is not always that simple. in some areas in the united states, comcast is a monopoly and if you want internet, you get it through comcast. or, you can get dial-up. but i and many other people would rather be beaten senseless (repeatedly) than go back to dial-up. besides, have you ever tried downloading a movie on dial-up? i have, and the beatings get my vote again.[/quote]
about time!
bitTorrent has been behind the obfuscations/encryption game for the last five years!
[quote]“BitTorrent users are not the problem, they only signal that the ISPs need to upgrade their capacity, because customers will only get more demanding in the future.”[/quote]
Or rather, bitTorrent (level bandwidth usage) is not the problem, it is the future; and any service providers who dispute this are dinosaurs, likely to be toppled by their far-more evolved successors in the near future.
i take it with the total lack of response, the developers couldnt care less about the potential loss of the UK torrent underground or the anonanimity of non US users then?
what bit torrent client is the beast for Encryption
Encryption will only go so far. Rogers (a cable company in Canada) implemented pcube boxes to shape bittorrent traffic, and the community responded by encrypting the packets so that the pcubes could not do DPI on them. Rogers in turn responded by resorting to throttling *ALL* encrypted packets, taking SSL and IPSec VPN applications with them. Needless to say many of us here in the Great White North are eager to see the outcome of Comcast’s current bout with the FCC as an indicator of what can be done about Rogers’ practices.
Comcast is nothing but a bunch of two-bit swindlers. Instead of getting more bandwidth capacity they decided to take what seemed the cheapest route.
I strongly dislike the point of view many ISPs around the world have assumed. Too often they pretend to know better than us about our actual needs. Too willingly they give in to illegal requests of the IFPI and block sites for no reason.
Perhaps it’s time for natural selection to take its toll.
Yep I got the email from Comcast today. I’ll be dropping them as well. Gotta check into some DSL prices around here. Too bad..I’ve had them for many years now. This monitoring activity is BS. Now I feel like someone has broken into my home.
There Is Ppl Who Can Code ‘N’ Help Us…But If There Is No Seeding…This Will Not Be The Cure To The Epidemic.
Nor The ISPs Will Be The Virus…But Ourselves Who Don’t Want To Share.
Greed Is Part Of Our Human Nature…We Have To Act Against It.
Much Respect To The Dev Team.
I Take My Hat Off.
thumbs up for the guys working on the project
and d.icks up for the isps throtling bittorent trafic
however my isp doesnt do any such stupid thing cuz they dont want their heads to be blown off by me..
Hurray PTCL!!
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