The Anatomy of Bitcoin Core's Recent Bug

The recent Bitcoin Core vulnerability is a clear case in point.

"Most catastrophic bug ever"On Sept. 18, Bitcoin Core developers announced a release of an update to fix a DDoS attack vulnerability.

The bug was identified by Bitcoin Cash developer Awemany, who concludes in his Medium post that CVE-2018-17144 is "The most catastrophic bug in recent years, and certainly one of the most catastrophic bugs in Bitcoin ever." Awemany publicly expressed his feedback without hesitating to call Bitcoin Core's most prominent developer arrogant.

"Bitcoin Core 0.14.x before 0.14.3, 0.15.x before 0.15.2, and 0.16.x before 0.16.3 and Bitcoin Knots 0.14.x through 0.16.x before 0.16.3 allow a remote denial of service exploitable by miners via duplicate input. An attacker can make bitcoind or Bitcoin-Qt crash."

According to the statement, the patched vulnerability existed in the Bitcoin Core software without repairment since version 0.14, while version 0.15 introduced the inflation vulnerability.

Bitcoin Core developers decided to disclose the full extent of the vulnerability after a majority of the BTC hash rate upgraded to the patched software, while full node operators who have not been complied with the guidance should do so as soon as possible.

Who found the bug?Among the catalysts to help resolve this critical bug was Bitcoin Core developer Cory Fields, who identified one of the most critical vulnerabilities of Bitcoin Cash earlier this year, which could have been so disruptive that transacting Bitcoin Cash safely would no longer be possible, completely undermining the utility of the currency itself, as Cory argues here.

Community's reactionThe Bitcoin Core development team has been heavily criticized by Bitcoin holders for the manner in which they rolled out the 'hot' announcement regarding the bug and the patch.

1.- John Carvalho September 24, 2018 The event was another opportunity for 'crypto Twitter' and especially the enthusiasts of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to argue.

Possible consequencesDespite the fact that the bug has been fixed, the question remains: What would have happened if the error had not been detected in time? In particular, some users wondered whether somebody managed to exploit this vulnerability to produce "a bunch of fake Bitcoins." One of them even discovered that 0.1 BTC was generated in the Bitcoin Testnet as a result of such misuse.