Resource exhaustion in Bitcoin Core

CVE-2016-10724

Bitcoin Core before v0.13.0 allows denial of service (memory exhaustion) triggered by the remote network alert system (deprecated since Q1 2016) if an attacker can sign a message with a certain private key that had been known by unintended actors, because of an infinitely sized map. This affects other uses of the codebase, such as Bitcoin Knots before v0.13.0.knots20160814 and many altcoins.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

EPSS: 0.023 (81.3th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-10724?
CVE-2016-10724 is a high-severity vulnerability in Bitcoin Core, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2018-07-05.
How severe is CVE-2016-10724?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-10724 known to be exploited?
3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.