Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

• bcoin bcoinbefore 1.0.2
• bitcoin bitcoin core0.16.0 and later · before 0.16.2
• bitcoinknots bitcoin knots0.16.0 and later · before 0.16.2
• btcd project btcd0.10.0
• btcd project btcd0.11.0
• btcd project btcd0.11.1
• btcd project btcd0.12.0
• btcd project btcd0.13.0
• btcd project btcd0.20.0
• btcd project btcd0.20.1
• btcd project btcd0.3.0
• btcd project btcd0.3.1
• btcd project btcd0.3.2
• btcd project btcd0.3.3
• btcd project btcd0.4.0
• btcd project btcd0.5.0
• btcd project btcd0.6.0
• btcd project btcd0.7.0
• btcd project btcd0.8.0
• btcd project btcd0.9.0

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

• CVE-2018-17144Bitcoin Core 0.14.x before 0.14.3, 0.15.x before 0.15.2, and 0.16.x before 0.16.3 and Bitcoin Knots 0.14.x through 0.16.x before 0.16.3 allo
  32Monitor
• CVE-2020-14198Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 allows remote denial of service.
  31Monitor
• CVE-2017-12842Bitcoin Core before 0.14 allows an attacker to create an ostensibly valid SPV proof for a payment to a victim who uses an SPV wallet, even i
  31Monitor
• CVE-2015-3641bitcoind and Bitcoin-Qt prior to 0.10.2 allow attackers to cause a denial of service (disabled functionality such as a client application cr
  31Monitor
• CVE-2016-10725In Bitcoin Core before v0.13.0, a non-final alert is able to block the special "final alert" (which is supposed to override all other alerts
  31Monitor
• CVE-2016-10724Bitcoin Core before v0.13.0 allows denial of service (memory exhaustion) triggered by the remote network alert system (deprecated since Q1 2
  31Monitor

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Root cause

Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

1function expand(node) {2  return node.children.map(expand);3}

1const MAX_DEPTH = 32;2function expand(node, depth = 0) {3  if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");4  return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));5}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.