All Questions
Tagged with vulnerability or weaknesses
53 questions
6
votes
1
answer
886
views
How could Bitcoin developers handle and resolve severe software vulnerability without drawing public attention?
I am curious about the process Bitcoin developers follow to address and resolve critical software vulnerabilities, such as bugs or flaws, that could be exploited by attackers to disrupt the network or ...
- 560
0
votes
2
answers
159
views
Mining stale low-difficulty blocks as a DoS attack
A DoS attack vector against a bitcoin node I haven't really seen mentioned anywhere is mining a stale chain in a low-difficulty era (say right after the genesis block), ideally with a lot of expensive ...
- 10.4k
2
votes
1
answer
44
views
How would one test the impact on the Lightning Network of a network split on the base layer?
How would one test the impact on the Lightning Network of a network split on the base layer (the blockchain progressing on two separate branches with each branch unaware of the other competing branch)?...
- 15.8k
0
votes
2
answers
107
views
Why bitcoins storing on a smartphone are considered vulnerable?
Let's suppose, someone stores all their bitcoins in an Android or iOS wallet.
he/she never stores a seed on the phone
he/she uses different addresses for change
wallet and gadget are password ...
user125245
0
votes
1
answer
909
views
What is the electrum bitcoin wallet password encryption method?
What method does Electrum bitcoin wallet use for password encryption?
I want to check to see if the file encrypted with the password is secure. And what are the ways around to decrypt it outside the ...
- 9
0
votes
2
answers
81
views
BTC - Mining Vulnerability and Future Consesus
In order for changes to the Bitcoin protocol to be made, 95% consensus must be achieved, otherwise a hard fork would need to occur? Is this the primary reason why changes to the core protocol are so ...
-1
votes
3
answers
129
views
Vulnerability of Bitcoin Network
Hi all I was wondering if I am doin a wrong assumption here: Let's assume a dezentralized peer to peer network and the bitcoin protocol. If a full node changes a transaction within a block and then ...
- 3
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
After last bitcoin is mined, can miner(s) with nefarious reasons kill bitcoin by holding fees thereby deflating Bitcoin eventually to zero?
Just hypothetically speaking, once there is no more rewards and we transition entirely into transaction fee regime, if a miner (or group of miners) with unlimited supply of electricity, computing ...
- 3
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What wallets are affected by the NPM package vulnerability?
Recently, a vulnerability was found in an open-source project used by some bitcoin wallet software (such as CoPay and BitPay).
Are there any other wallets known to be affected by this vulnerability? ...
- 18.4k
21
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How does the most recently found critical vulnerability (CVE-2018-17144) work?
If you were a miner, what are the steps you would take to create the extra (21,000,012.5th) bitcoin?
Where in the source code is this exactly (link)?
Why can't this be done by a non-miner?
Also, ...
- 1,503
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How is the Leaf node weakness in Merkle Trees exploitable?
Recently a weakness in leaf nodes of merkle trees was disclosed and it is claimed that this issue is exploitable to trick SPV nodes. How does the weakness make SPV nodes vulnerable to attack? What ...
- 72.1k
4
votes
1
answer
270
views
How do the JavaScript SecureRandom() vulnerabilities affect me?
A recent post on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list talks about multiple vulnerabilities in JavaScript SecureRandom() class. Apparently this class has been used in multiple cryptocurrency wallets that use ...
- 72.1k
0
votes
1
answer
87
views
What prevents a majority attack from undoing transactions of others?
From the Wiki:
If the attacker has the majority of computer power, "the attacker can't reverse other people's transactions without their cooperation."
I don't quite understand why this must be the ...
- 289
1
vote
0
answers
66
views
The 21,000,000 BTC Limit Issue [duplicate]
I love the concept of Bitcoin, however I have noticed a few weaknesses to the system that not may folks talk about. One of the issues is the 21,000,000 limit. After "X" amount of time, a certain ...
- 11
12
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What is the "1 RETURN" bug?
From Nathaniel Popper's “Digital Gold : Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money", this heavily edited (by me, for clarity) excerpt:
“In late July Gavin ...
- 5,338
-4
votes
2
answers
128
views
0
votes
2
answers
263
views
What will be happen if 21 million of bitcoins become the property of one?
Let's assume, that the day already came, when emission of bitcoins completed, and we have the 21 millions of bitcoins. Let's say it happen that all these Bitcoins at one moment became the property of ...
- 19
0
votes
2
answers
396
views
How can address' hash160 be used to determine information for malicious purposes? (Ie reusing of the same address)
I've been playing around with Richard Kiss's Pycoin app which is clarifying how P2PK works. I see that the hash160 of the value: (0x04) (x-coordinate) (y-coordinate) (for an uncompressed Testnet ...
- 5,338
13
votes
7
answers
488
views
What would be required to disincentivize mining pools?
Now that mining pools are starting to hit the 51% cusp of total mining power, what would need to happen to the Bitcoin protocol to reduce their success, and encourage distributed mining power over ...
- 601
2
votes
1
answer
252
views
Why are broadcast checkpoints considered bad?
warren, a LiteCoin dev, said of Peercoin:
Good Luck Removing PPC's Centralized Checkpoints
Regarding PPC... these amount to empty obfuscating defensive excuses. Sure he wants to remove the broadcast ...
- 447
4
votes
2
answers
679
views
Why is Enjoy Sochi a malicious spam attack
I recently read the following thing on reddit:
The two transactions for .00000001 BTC are a malicious spam attack.
They were sent without fees, which means that if you wallet doesn't
allow you ...
- 3,370
5
votes
2
answers
979
views
Can the bitcoin network hashrate be used for a 51% attack on other coins?
Please correct me if I am wrong.
The difficulty constantly changes according to the current hash rate. It changes to ensure that a block is mined every 10 minutes. If the hash rate was 1000 TH/s and ...
- 51
2
votes
1
answer
188
views
What will happen, if transaction's rate becomes very high?
Let's imagine, that the bitcoin network becomes very responsive in the future. So, that the time of exchange of transactions between peers is comparable with a time of evaluation of a bunch of hashes. ...
- 153
0
votes
2
answers
163
views
Techniques or proposais to require transactions to be included in a block?
As it stands now, a miner (or mining pool) can discriminate any transaction for any reason if they are running a custom version of code.
Suppose an evil and powerful mining pool decided to hash ...
- 12.8k
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What are Ripple's weaknesses? [closed]
Bitcoin's vulnerabilities are well documented. Is there are similar document for Ripple?
- 2,022
26
votes
6
answers
36k
views
What happens to the bitcoin network when the miners all stop in the future?
What happens to the bitcoin network when the miners all stop, years in the future after all the bitcoins have been mined? How will the network continue to function? Won't bitcoins then be useless? ...
- 269
5
votes
2
answers
344
views
Can someone with an unlimited amount of money compromize the network?
I was reading this interesting discussion in the comments section on ZH where this guy was talking about how a single entity (think corrupt government and banksters) can throw money and processing ...
- 205
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Developments to prevent 51% hack [duplicate]
How might Bitcoin be made impervious from attack by large monied interests that could atttack with a brute force majority hashrate hack?
- 41
3
votes
4
answers
768
views
Would bitcoin be destroyed if a wealthy organization obtained a CPU majority for a sustained period?
Inspired by this question ("Could bitcoin be destroyed by an entity cornering the market?") and the top comment on this answer to this question ("How much would it cost to execute a 51% attack?").
...
- 533
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Could mining calculations be used to crack private key? [duplicate]
Could mining calculations be used to crack private key, in addition to mining for checking against few million accounts with positive balances? If that possible, at the current mining rate (30TH/s) ...
- 1,852
-2
votes
2
answers
821
views
What improvements could a next-generation cryptocurrency implement?
What would next generation cryptocurrency would look like? What are the major weaknesses that you think we could solve? How do you envision it could be implemented technically? For example:
How ...
- 11
3
votes
2
answers
700
views
Strategies against Bitcoin
With the recent increase in articles about the threat of Bitcoin vs central banks, government and other authorities over the money supply, I am wondering how well authorities are prepared and actively ...
- 209
58
votes
8
answers
41k
views
What effects would a scalable Quantum Computer have on Bitcoin?
A scalable quantum computer is a quantum computer that is easy to extend - adding more (q)bits of memory is not a fundamentally hard problem, and will happen. Or, alternatively, that it follows Moore'...
- 26.6k
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How Does trading on the Exchanges Work?
Pardon my Ignorance but can somebody explain the basics
Of how trading (Bid Buy/Bid Sell) works of the common exchanges
www.mtgox.com
www.btc-e.com
Aslo some of the common ways people or ...
- 898
13
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Could bitcoin be destroyed if an entity cornered the market?
I know the US Government is opposed to competing currencies. It seems that it would be a rather simple solution for them to destroy Bitcoin before it grows too much by merely buying all the currency, ...
- 533
14
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does any pool accept higher-fee transactions of a double spend, instead of the earlier one?
Some pools use a modified bitcoind that uses different rules for choosing the transactions to include in a block. Are there any pools that knowing one transaction to be included in a block would ...
- 43.2k
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to secure one's Bitcoin Client from packet sniffing?
Potential packet sniffing weakness has been described on the Weakness Wiki page. It states that an attacker that can see all of our internet traffic can pick up which transactions originate from our ...
- 43.2k
3
votes
2
answers
520
views
What are the limitations of a Client connecting to the Network through TOR?
I've recently been reading the Weaknesses Wiki page on "Attack on all users" and I came upon this statement:
The IP addresses of most users are totally public. You can use Tor to hide this, but the ...
- 43.2k
2
votes
3
answers
901
views
What happens if a monopoly grows in Bitcoin mining and payment processing?
What happens if a monopoly grows in Bitcoin mining and payment processing? Here is a scenario that I have been thinking about. Some big corporation, like the Bank of Amerika, decides that Bitcoin is ...
- 2,297
9
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does Bitcoin rely on the internet?
Is it possible to run Bitcoin mining and transaction distribution without using the internet?
For example, how would Bitcoin continue in the event of a total clampdown by a telco?
- 7,603
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is Bitcoin inherently dependent on electricity?
Obviously, the computing power necessary to create the blockchain requires access to fast hashing which requires electricity. Given that local power outages do occur, and this can cause a lack of ...
- 7,603
10
votes
1
answer
750
views
Strange transaction (block 71036)
What happened to this transaction?
Can someone explain it?
http://blockexplorer.com/t/9eHTFRi3Qq
- 435
45
votes
4
answers
8k
views
How is block-solution-withholding a threat to mining pools?
If I understand the technical process (for most mining pools) correctly, a participant in a mining pool is given block data to combine with a nonce to try to solve the block. If they get close (but ...
- 11k
15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Would a reduced block generation time make the Finney attack more difficult?
Related Question:
What can be done to mitigate the risk of a Finney attack?
The Finney attack is a form of double-spending attack where the attacker pre-mines a block containing a conflicting ...
- 51.7k
10
votes
2
answers
472
views
What prevents bitcoin from breaking down in case of a "transaction attack"
Let's say that I want to kill Bitcoin by means of a transaction attack. What in the bitcoin system prevents the following approach:
I buy a limited number of bitcoin in the market.
Using a small ...
- 193
17
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Will the amount of electricity used for mining be huge if Bitcoin is widely adopted?
A quick and very rough estimation: If the USD/BTC exchange rate grows to $1000/BTC (not that far-fetched if Bitcoin is actually widely adopted) bitcoins for a value of $300000 would be produced every ...
- 5,307
12
votes
1
answer
297
views
What security features are built in to the standard Bitcoin software?
I have read much of the Bitcoin algorithm and its encryption basis, however little has been said of the software's inherent security.
What solutions are already built in to the software, and what is ...
- 491
9
votes
2
answers
263
views
Do any of the Bitcoin exchanges implement trading curbs?
After the big hack of Mt Gox we all became aware that there is nothing in place to prevent "flash crashes." Most stock, FOREX and other exchanges have features like trading curbs or other market ...
- 14.4k
8
votes
3
answers
710
views
Which Bitcoin weakness most hinder Bitcoins ability to gain market and mind share? [closed]
Bitcoin has a few weaknesses. Among the well known ones are:
Transactions are not instantaneous.
Large numbers of transactions would bloat blocks.
Transaction fees are needed in some cases.
The ...
- 51.7k
57
votes
10
answers
9k
views
What methods could a government use to shutdown Bitcoin?
Let's say that a government decided to shut down the Bitcoin network. What options would they have to achieve this? Would they need to convince other governments? All governments?
Let's set as a ...
- 3,454