Can anyone explain how p2p encryption prevents man-in-the-middle attack? People recommend encryption to stop ISPs from throttling your Bittorent traffic.
When I connect to ssl amazon - I get served a signed cert saying I am defn connecting to who I think I'm connecting to. But in the world of p2p I have no idea who I'm connecting to.. What stops the ISPs from getting 'in the middle' to decrypt the traffic?
From the wikipedia article:
MSE/PE uses key exchange combined with the infohash of the torrent to establish an RC4 encryption key. The key exchange helps to minimize the risk of passive listeners, and the infohash helps avoid man-in-the-middle attacks.
Not really sure what is meant by "infohash" in this context?
Regardless, I'm sure this is just part of the arms race between p2p users and ISPs. If 'man-in-the-middle' is possible it just raised the bar (and computing power needed) for the ISPs.