CVE-2017-9230
Severity CVSS v4.0:
Pending analysis
Type:
Unavailable / Other
Publication date:
24/05/2017
Last modified:
20/04/2025
Description
The Bitcoin Proof-of-Work algorithm does not consider a certain attack methodology related to 80-byte block headers with a variety of initial 64-byte chunks followed by the same 16-byte chunk, multiple candidate root values ending with the same 4 bytes, and calculations involving sqrt numbers. This violates the security assumptions of (1) the choice of input, outside of the dedicated nonce area, fed into the Proof-of-Work function should not change its difficulty to evaluate and (2) every Proof-of-Work function execution should be independent. NOTE: a number of persons feel that this methodology is a benign mining optimization, not a vulnerability
Impact
Base Score 3.x
7.50
Severity 3.x
HIGH
Base Score 2.0
5.00
Severity 2.0
MEDIUM
Vulnerable products and versions
CPE | From | Up to |
---|---|---|
cpe:2.3:a:bitcoin:bitcoin:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
To consult the complete list of CPE names with products and versions, see this page
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
- http://www.mit.edu/~jlrubin//public/pdfs/Asicboost.pdf
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98657
- https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.00575.pdf
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/013996.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014349.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014351.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014352.html
- http://www.mit.edu/~jlrubin//public/pdfs/Asicboost.pdf
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98657
- https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.00575.pdf
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/013996.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014349.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014351.html
- https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-May/014352.html