SoK: Transparent Dishonesty: front-running attacks on Blockchain
This addresses security vulnerabilities in decentralized systems, particularly for blockchain users and developers, but is incremental as it synthesizes existing knowledge and categorizes solutions.
The paper investigates front-running attacks on blockchain, analyzing instances across top Ethereum DApps and providing evidence of abnormal miner behavior during an ICO, which indicates front-running of token purchases.
We consider front-running to be a course of action where an entity benefits from prior access to privileged market information about upcoming transactions and trades. Front-running has been an issue in financial instrument markets since the 1970s. With the advent of the blockchain technology, front-running has resurfaced in new forms we explore here, instigated by blockchains decentralized and transparent nature. In this paper, we draw from a scattered body of knowledge and instances of front-running across the top 25 most active decentral applications (DApps) deployed on Ethereum blockchain. Additionally, we carry out a detailed analysis of Status.im initial coin offering (ICO) and show evidence of abnormal miners behavior indicative of front-running token purchases. Finally, we map the proposed solutions to front-running into useful categories.