Bitcoin Core developers have been attempting to squash a cockroach of a malicious program that has stout node operators since 2020. This month, it appears to be like love they’ll have at final exterminated the pesky disk beget attack once and for all.
The disk beget attack bodily annoys the machines that feature stout nodes. Attackers spend commands love LogPrintf, LogInfo, LogWarning, or LogError to power the laborious drives of victims to excessively write superfluous files to disk.
Particularly for reasonably priced or older nodes that spend non-flash storage with a spinning disk, this excessive logging overwhelms their laborious drives, filling it with pointless files.
Be taught extra: High severity malicious program in Bitcoin Core affects 17% of stout nodes
Even for storage drives that spend flash storage, excessive writes degrade the disk and can also atomize the machine altogether.
Ending Bitcoin’s disk beget attack
In Bitcoin Core Pull Keep a question to (PR) 32604, which revived 21603 which revived 21559, which revived 19995—yes, the chain of extermination makes an are trying spans five years—senior Bitcoin Core developer Gloria Zhao merged malicious program patch 2d59977 into master department manufacturing final week.
The commit passed 19 assessments, and no developer indicated NACK (unfavorable acknowledgement), a vote that can have indicated disapproval of this trade.
Developers are hopeful that once this patch proliferates right thru the Bitcoin network with the next commence of Bitcoin Core, the disk beget attack might possibly perchance at final die. Basically the most well-liked model of Bitcoin Core is 29.0, released April 14. Core in general releases upgrades every few months.
As a voluntary utility bundle that would no longer allow computerized updates, stout node operators have to always resolve to manually toughen their utility.
About 16% of node operators are working model 29.0. Varied nodes dash older versions of the utility.
