A hacker has exploited a major flaw in the Dogecoin network, causing 69% of its active nodes to crash. The breach has raised serious concerns about the cryptocurrency’s security and resilience.
How the Exploit Unfolded
On Dec. 12, Andreas Kohl, co-founder of Bitcoin sidechain Sequentia, revealed that he used an old laptop to exploit the vulnerability and crash the majority of Dogecoin’s nodes. Before the attack, the network had 647 active nodes. However, data from Blockchair shows that the number of active nodes dropped to 315 following the exploit.
Kohl leveraged a flaw discovered by researcher Tobias Ruck, highlighting a critical issue in Dogecoin’s infrastructure.
The “DogeReaper” Vulnerability
The vulnerability, dubbed “DogeReaper,” was initially disclosed on Dec. 4 by the “Department Of DOGE Efficiency” account on X (formerly Twitter). This flaw reportedly allows anyone to crash Dogecoin nodes remotely by exploiting a segmentation fault in the system.
A segmentation fault occurs when a program attempts to access restricted memory, prompting the operating system to shut it down for safety.
The “Department Of DOGE Efficiency” account likened the DogeReaper to the infamous “Death Note” from Japanese manga, where writing a person’s name in a notebook causes their death. Similarly, the exploit allows attackers to input a node’s address and crash it.
The account warned that Dogecoin’s publicly accessible nodes made the network especially vulnerable. “If a malicious actor had discovered this bug instead of us, they could have stopped the Dogecoin network for at least a few days, halting all transactions and block generation,” the post read.
Coinbase’s Response
Despite the potential severity of the issue, Coinbase classified the vulnerability as low-risk and awarded Tobias Ruck a $200 bounty for identifying it. This decision has sparked debate in the crypto community, given the exploit’s widespread impact on the network.
This exploit has exposed a critical weakness in Dogecoin’s security infrastructure. The ability to crash nodes so easily raises concerns about the network’s stability and its ability to withstand future attacks. While the Dogecoin network continues to operate, this incident underscores the need for urgent action to address vulnerabilities and strengthen security.
