WASTE - Shortcomings

Shortcomings

  • Trading public keys, enabling port forwarding on your firewall (if necessary), and connecting to each other can be a difficult and/or tedious process, especially for those who aren't very technically proficient.
  • Due to the network's distributed nature, it is impossible to "kick" someone from the network once they've gained access. Since every member of the network will have that member's public key, all that member needs to do to regain access is to connect to another member. Coordinating the change of the network name is exceedingly difficult, so the best course of action is to create another network and migrate everyone over to the new network. This could, of course, also be seen as a strength.
  • Since there is no central server, once someone disconnects from the network, they must know at least one network IP address to reconnect. It is possible that the network will drift from all the IP addresses used before so that none is known, and it becomes necessary to contact a network member and ask for address information to be able to reconnect. Indeed, it is possible that a network could unknowingly split into two this way. It takes at least some coordination to keep a WASTE network intact; this can be as simple as one or more volunteers with a static IP address or a fixed dynamic DNS (DDNS) address (available free of charge from a number of providers) keeping their node up to allow people to reconnect to the network.
  • While encryption is performed using the Blowfish algorithm, which is thought to be strong, the PCBC mode used has several known security flaws.
  • Nicknames are not "registered," which allows eavesdropping and spoofing. WASTE version 1.6 reduces the chances of eavesdropping by using public keys for communication, but as network members may choose any nickname a user must know and recognize the hash of the person they wish to communicate with to be sure of their identity.
  • To connect from behind a firewall, one party must have the proper port forwarded to their computer; as WASTE networks do not depend on a central server there is no way around this. However, as long as one node accepts incoming connections it can act as a server, connecting nodes that cannot themselves accept incoming connections. Indeed, the long-term stability of a WASTE network depends on these hubs.

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