Securing LAN Communications with Blockchain-Inspired Mechanisms

This work proposes a novel blockchain-inspired protocol to enhance the security of Local Area Network (LAN) communications against Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks such as ARP spoofing. Conventional LAN protocols lack mechanisms to ensure packet integrity and authenticity, making them vulnerable to tampering and eavesdropping. In response, this protocol introduces a decentralized messaging framework where each encrypted packet is broadcast to all LAN nodes and includes a cryptographic hash of the previous message. This hash chaining approach mirrors blockchain’s immutable ledger model, enabling all nodes to validate message integrity collaboratively. Only the intended recipient can decrypt the content, preserving confidentiality. By distributing verification responsibilities across the LAN, the system eliminates the need for a central authority, thereby increasing resilience to insider threats. While inspired by blockchain’s structure, the proposed method avoids heavy consensus mechanisms, offering a lightweight yet tamper-evident communication model. Performance considerations and scalability limits are also addressed, including potential bandwidth, latency, and storage overheads.