What is CVE-2010-5138?

CVE-2010-5138 is a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core. Published 2012-08-06.

Is CVE-2010-5138 known to be exploited?

4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Bitcoin Core

CVE-2010-5138

wxBitcoin and bitcoind 0.3.x allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (electricity consumption) via a Bitcoin transaction containing multiple OP_CHECKSIG script opcodes.

Published 2012-08-06 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 5.0 (Medium). Vector: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.020 (79.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 80th percentile — 79.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.020 · newest: 0.020 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Bitcoin Core — versions 0.3.4, 0.3.5
Bitcoin Wxbitcoin — versions 0.3.4, 0.3.5

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CVEs (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2010-5138?: CVE-2010-5138 is a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core. Published 2012-08-06.
Is CVE-2010-5138 known to be exploited?: 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.