Technology Category
Application Domains: SecurityMultiagent Systems: Mechanism DesignData Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust
TeeMAF: A TEE-Based Mutual Attestation Framework for On-Chain and Off-Chain Functions in Blockchain DApps
🤖 AI Summary
This work addresses the lack of mutual trust and vulnerability to tampering between on-chain smart contracts and off-chain components in blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApps). To this end, the authors propose TeeMAF, a novel framework that establishes the first generic architecture supporting bidirectional authentication between on-chain and off-chain environments. By integrating Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs)—leveraging Intel SGX and SCONE containers—with remote attestation, TeeMAF enables secure off-chain computation and verifiable on-chain validation on Ethereum. Experimental evaluation using Hyperledger Caliper demonstrates that TeeMAF significantly enhances system reliability and execution correctness with only moderate performance overhead, thereby providing end-to-end security guarantees for DApps operating in untrusted environments.
Technology Category
Application Category
📝 Abstract
The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has led to growing concerns about data security and user privacy in the interactions within distributed systems. Decentralized Applications (DApps) in distributed systems consist of on-chain and off-chain functions, where on-chain functions are smart contracts running in the blockchain network, while off-chain functions operate outside the blockchain. Since smart contracts cannot access off-chain information, they cannot verify whether the off-chain functions, i.e. the software components, they interact with have been tampered or not. As a result, establishing mutual trust between the on-chain smart contracts and the off-chain functions remains a significant challenge. To address the challenge, this paper introduces TeeMAF, a generic framework for mutual attestation between on-chain and off-chain functions, leveraging Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), specifically Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), SCONE (a TEE container on top of Intel SGX), and remote attestation technologies. This ensures that the deployed off-chain functions of a DApp execute in a provably secure computing environment and achieve mutual attestation with the interacting on-chain functions. Through a security analysis of TeeMAF, the reliability of deployed DApps can be verified, ensuring their correct execution. Furthermore, based on this framework, this paper proposes a decentralized resource orchestration platform (a specific DApp) for deploying applications over untrusted environments. The system is implemented on Ethereum and benchmarked using Hyperledger Caliper. Performance evaluation focusing on throughput and latency demonstrates that, compared to platforms without a mutual attestation scheme, the performance overhead remains within an acceptable range.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
mutual attestation
blockchain DApps
on-chain and off-chain functions
data security
trusted execution environment
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
Mutual Attestation
Blockchain DApps
Intel SGX
Off-chain/On-chain Integration
🔎 Similar Papers
No similar papers found.
