Ravencoin (RVN) Consensus Exploit and Chain Restoration
This was probably the most critical incident on any of our swimming pools this yr, so right here is the entire thing so as.
What broke
The flaw sits in Ravencoin’s KAWPOW block header validation. The nHeight subject contained in the KAWPOW header was by no means checked in opposition to the block’s precise place within the chain. An attacker who manipulates that subject can get a susceptible node to simply accept a provided combine hash with out ever doing the true ProgPoW work – no DAG, no memory-hard hashing, no GPU. Forging a block that means is orders of magnitude cheaper than mining one actually.
The bug had two ugly uncomfortable side effects past the solid blocks themselves. Affected nodes might crash on restart, and nodes attempting to sync bumped into damaged header sequences and stalled.
Timeline
- August 7, 15:44:01 UTC – the primary recognized invalid block is accepted at top 4,487,776. A self-described safety researcher demonstrated the assault on mainnet, and a second attacker copied it.
- August 10 – 2Miners releases the emergency patch 4.6.1.1-hf1. It rejects any block whose declared header top doesn’t match its precise place within the chain, and locks a checkpoint at block 4,487,775, the final clear block.
- August 10-12 – Upbit and Bitget droop RVN deposits and withdrawals as a precaution.
- August 11 – Ravencoin publicly discloses the vulnerability and advises node operators, exchanges, and explorers to improve instantly. Maintainer Hans Schmidt recommends working the 2Miners code till a mixed upstream launch is prepared.
- August 19 – Ravencoin publishes v4.8.0, constructed on the identical code we launched, bundling the KAWPOW repair with the separate asset switch amount overflow patch.
How huge the injury was
Scanning a 2,089-block window from 4,489,527 to 4,491,615, we recognized 96 solid blocks. All the things confirmed after 4,487,775 on the exploited department was in danger, which is roughly three days of chain historical past.
The restoration chain
2Miners and the opposite swimming pools began constructing a competing chain from block 4,487,776 that excludes the department carrying the invalid blocks. Collectively we maintain nearly all of Ravencoin’s hash price, so the clear chain grew sooner than the solid one and overtook it. It’s now hundreds of blocks forward, friends have reconnected, and the cut up is settled in favour of the trustworthy chain.
Each RVN mined earlier than August 7 was by no means in query. Our RVN pool and RVN SOLO have been working on the clear chain all through.
What you could do
- Run v4.8.0 in the event you function your individual node, pockets, explorer, or change integration. It supersedes our emergency hotfix 4.6.1.1-hf1.
- v4.7.0 doesn’t repair this. That launch solely patched the asset overflow bug and by no means activated on mainnet, as a result of BIP9 voting didn’t full earlier than v4.8.0 turned needed.
- Something older than 4.6.1.1-hf1 remains to be uncovered to the identical forged-block trick and will refuse to sync.
In the event you mine RVN with us and don’t run your individual node, there may be nothing to vary in your aspect. KAWPOW mining and payouts proceed as regular.
Pearl (PRL) Salted Noise-Seed Exhausting Fork at Block 99,000
Pearl activated a tough fork at mainnet block 99,000 on August 11. The change salts the noise seed utilized by PearlHash, which implies shares produced by pre-fork mining software program are merely invalid after the fork block.
Please concentrate! This failure mode is quiet. An outdated miner retains reporting a wholesome hashrate in your display whereas nothing it submits will get credited. In case your PRL earnings flatlined in mid-August, that is why.
Mining software program with fork assist:
- PeakMiner 2.9.0
- SRBMiner 3.5.3
- Krig 1.2.0
- ArcMiner 0.3.1
- Fl4shMiner 1.2.7
- ForgeMiner 1.5.10
On the node aspect the fork ships in Pearl 1.4.1, and that’s what our node runs. Earlier within the month we additionally took Pearl 1.3.1 (commit b6d7e5e), a follow-up to the 1.3.0 rank-penalty smooth fork launched on August 5. Our swimming pools had been prepared earlier than the fork block and stored producing. Mine on PRL POOL and PRL SOLO, and test profitability on 2CryptoCalc.
Kaspa (KAS) Block Reward Discount
As outlined by the Kaspa Tokenomics, the Crescendo Exhausting Fork, and the official emission schedule, Kaspa underwent one other scheduled block reward discount in August.
- Earlier Reward: 2.449 KAS
- New Reward: 2.312 KAS
Please concentrate! Kaspa mining profitability has modified. We’ve already up to date 2CryptoCalc to mirror the brand new reward values. Mining continues on the KAS pool and KAS SOLO.
Node Updates
Ergo – 6.0.4
Launched August 18. Most of this launch is API hardening and check work, however three gadgets matter in the event you run an Ergo node or care about block propagation:
- Block candidate technology enhancements
- A repair for lastHeaders within the upcoming state context, so the miner not will get caught on divergence throughout block pre-validation and validation
- A caught-up repair, plus additional index consistency preserved throughout chain switches
The remainder is housekeeping: duplicate IDs are actually prevented within the ordered transaction pool, a number of REST and pockets routes validate their parameters correctly, and the testnet model 2 activation top was corrected. Autolykos mining is unchanged. Mine on the ERG pool and ERG SOLO.
Quai – v0.55.1
Tagged August 11. The headline for miners is that go-quai now carries a built-in stratum proxy for solo mining, and the discharge collects a future of labor on it:
- Variable issue (vardiff) for the stratum proxy
- Non-obligatory PROXY protocol assist, so the stratum server works behind a load balancer
- A blockTemplateUpdates websocket subscription
- Bitcoin-style issue values as a substitute of uncooked issue in API submissions
- A well being test service on port 8081 that compares node top in opposition to a public RPC
- Swish stratum shutdown, distinctive job IDs, monotonic session IDs, and a frequency parameter that solely updates ASICs on the requested price
- KawPoW dealing with updates on Quai mum or dad hash change, and guarding of the epoch and light-weight cache DAG dimension
Nothing adjustments in your miner configuration on our aspect. Mine on QUAI KawPow, QUAI KawPow SOLO, QUAI SHA-256, and QUAI SHA-256 SOLO.
Keep Up to date
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