Dogecoin flaw exploited by hacker, crashes 69% of nodes

Critical Vulnerability Exploited in Dogecoin Network

A hacker has exploited a vulnerability in the Dogecoin network, causing a significant outage.

Nodes Crashed

On December 12th, Andreas Kohl, co-founder of Sequentia, claimed to have exploited a vulnerability affecting 69% of the Dogecoin network's nodes.

Exploit Details

According to Kohl, the hack utilized a vulnerability identified by researcher Tobias Ruck. The exploit allowed remote crashing of Dogecoin nodes.

'DogeReaper' Vulnerability

The vulnerability, known as "DogeReaper," resembles the "Death Note" concept. It allows individuals to cause nodes to fail remotely by targeting their addresses, leading to segmentation faults.

Impact

Before the exploit, Dogecoin had 647 active nodes. As of writing, only 315 nodes remain active, underscoring the severity of the outage.

Vulnerability Discovery

The vulnerability was initially disclosed on December 4th by an anonymous account named "Department Of DOGE Efficiency." The account emphasized the potential for a complete network crash.

Coinbase Response

Coinbase deemed the vulnerability as low-severity and rewarded Ruck with $200 for its disclosure.