1 month ago
Bitcoin Core developers warned users connected Monday of a wallet migration bug successful versions 30.0 and 30.1 that tin delete files and effect successful money loss.
The issue occurs nether circumstantial conditions and affects migrations from aged Bitcoin Core wallets that were ne'er renamed oregon upgraded.
Lacie Zhang, marketplace expert astatine Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph that the bug is triggered erstwhile the bundle attempts to migrate an unnamed bequest “wallet.dat” record stored successful a customized wallet directory, often defined utilizing “-walletdir” setting, portion pruning is enabled.
In these cases, the migration tin look to implicit successfully, but the cleanup logic mistakenly deletes the full wallet directory, and if a idiosyncratic does not person an outer backup, “loss of entree to funds is efficaciously guaranteed due to the fact that each section wallet files are removed.”
Shawn Odonaghue, assemblage pb astatine layer-3 blockchain Orbs, told Cointelegraph that the bug chiefly impacts “very aged wallet setups,” and that users with a hardware wallet or modern wallet software are improbable to acquisition specified issues.
Related: Bitcoin Core wins uncommon praise arsenic autarkic audit finds nary superior flaws
Bitcoin Core pulls binaries and prepares fix
Bitcoin Core 30.1 was released connected Jan. 1 and the wallet migration bug was publically disclosed connected Monday, with developers pulling the 30.0 and 30.1 binaries from the authoritative download site.
Bitcoin Core 30.0 and 30.1 Bug | Source: Bitcoin Core ProjectThe task told users not to usage the wallet‑migration tools until a fixed release, Bitcoin Core 30.2, is available, stressing that existing users who are not attempting migrations tin proceed moving their nodes arsenic normal.
Zhang added that technically proficient users tin measure their vulnerability by checking whether they are moving Bitcoin Core v30.0 oregon v30.1, determining whether their wallet is simply a bequest wallet, inspecting “debug.log” to spot whether pruning is enabled and whether immoderate migration attempts person already occurred, and by reviewing the directory layout to corroborate whether “-walletdir” points to a customized oregon mounted location.
“Risk is highest if each these conditions are contiguous and a migration has either been attempted oregon is pending,” she said. “If nary migration has occurred yet, users should instantly backmost up the full information directory to outer media and debar restarting oregon upgrading until moving to mentation 30.2 oregon later.”
Related: Bitcoin devs flocked backmost to enactment amid a large twelvemonth for crypto
Bitcoin Core dominates nodes
According to Bitcoin information tracker Coin Dance, Bitcoin Core presently accounts for astir 78% of reachable Bitcoin nodes, portion different implementations specified arsenic Bitcoin Knots marque up astir 22%.
Bitcoin Core runs astir nodes | Source: CoindanceThat dominance means adjacent a narrowly scoped wallet bug tin substance for the wider ecosystem.
“The bigger takeaway is attraction risk,” Odonaghue said. “Bitcoin Core has a monolithic stock of the ecosystem, determination aren’t galore genuinely mainstream alternatives… erstwhile 1 implementation becomes the default, immoderate bug oregon plan determination has outsized impact.”
Zhang added that portion the bug was not “consensus-critical,” its interaction shows however wallet-layer issues tin inactive standard into ecosystem-wide problems erstwhile a azygous implementation dominates usage.
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