Authentication with controlled anonymity in P2P systems

This paper describes a new protocol for authentication in Peer-to-Peer systems. The protocol has been designed to meet specialized requirements of P2P systems, such as lack of direct communication between peers or requirements for controlled anonymity. At the same time, a P2P authentication protocol must be resistant to spoofing, eavesdropping and playback, and man-in-the-middle attacks. The protocol is studied for a model P2P storage system that needs to implement file access rights.