Ethereum has already started the countdown to the activation of London, and with it EIP-1559, which was patched these days by developers to correct a bug that made the network vulnerable.
The developers of Ethereum, the second network blockchain The most important in the industry, revealed what would be a new security vulnerability for the network, once the improvement proposal was implemented EIP-1559.
In a developer meeting, broadcast on the Ethereum Foundation's YouTube channel, Martin Holst Sweden He talked about a bug found in the EIP-1559 code, which could create a new security vulnerability for Ethereum, once the proposal was implemented on the mainnet.
According to Swende, who is Ethereum's security lead, EIP-1559 did not include an explicit limit on the fields “maxFee"And"maxPriorityFee” that control the tips that users offer to miners. Although this does not sound so serious, the truth is that it was a dangerous error that would allow the creation of inflated and malicious transactions within Ethereum, so an attacker could send a large amount of spam to the network to manipulate it, and even make it impossible to use.
Ethereum developer and researcher, Beiko Team, also spoke on Twitter about the detected error, pointing out that the security vulnerability would only be possible with the activation of EIP-1559.
During the developer call, Swende explained that thanks to the work done by the network team, the error was detected and patched in time, shortly after the arrival of the hard fork London, which will activate EIP-1559 on the Ethereum mainnet. Let us remember that this improvement proposal is one of the important ones that will come to this blockchain, due to the solution it offers to the high gas fees that network users currently face.
It may interest you: Ethereum was vulnerable to a DoS attack until the arrival of Berlin in mid-April
Limiting tips online
Since the bug found in EIP-1559 would make it possible for an attacker to put any amount of money into their transaction as a tip for miners, even if they did not have the funds to cover the tip, Beiko noted that a large amount of spam could be sent to the network, causing a DoS attack in the mempool, which could lead to a fork and split the chain, something that would be catastrophic for Ethereum.
Fortunately, the network developers are already implementing the solution for the detected problem, as can be read in the meeting agenda. available in the GitHub repository.
Swende proposed implementing 4 new lines in the EIP-1559 code to limit tips in the “maxFee” and “maxPriorityFee” fields. The developer’s solution also allows checking that the sender’s balance for a transaction is greater than the tip they offer to miners, ensuring that a sender actually has the funds to pay their maxFee, and cannot abuse these values to spam the network.
Countdown to London activation
Ethereum is now very close to implementing London, scheduled for July 14. This hard fork will produce a transcendental change in the blockchain, which will change its commission auction mechanism to reduce the high commission rates of the network; in addition, it will turn ethereum into an asset with a deflationary tendency, burning a part of the ethers that users pay in commissions to miners. Although this new mechanism has caused great controversy in the crypto community and, especially, among miners, developers believe that the long-term benefits will be much greater for everyone.
As he explained Vitalik Buterin, creator and developer of Ethereum, London will activate a series of improvements in the network that will be “enough” to minimize the current problems facing Ethereum, which is being a victim of its own success, until the arrival of Ethereum 2.0, which will offer true scalability for the network.
Although the transition from ETH to ETH 2.0, which implements the consensus protocol PoS, which was scheduled for sometime next year, Buterin recently indicated that its arrival may be hampered by several elements, mainly the human factor.
Buterin admitted that building Ethereum 2.0 has already taken a very long time, longer than initially expected, and that it was possible that it would take a while longer. However, while Ethereum continues to delay the arrival of ETH 2.0, second layer solutions such as Polygon y Arbitum, take advantage to gain prominence in the crypto industry, and even other third-generation blockchains, such as Polkadot y Cardano, which are demonstrating to users that they exist alternatives cheaper, faster and more accessible than Ethereum.
Continue reading: The arrival of London is approaching, the hard fork that will reduce Ethereum fees
