Post-incident Analysis: Unraveling the Cycle Exploit
In a recent development, a critical security flaw was discovered in the validator software of a popular blockchain network. The attack, which stemmed from an "off-by-one" error in the certificate validation logic, resulted in an approximate minting of 500,000 SHM tokens as a faulty staking reward.
The off-by-one error, a common programming issue, typically occurs when software incorrectly handles boundary conditions during certificate validation. In this case, the error allowed the validator to accept certificates that should have been rejected, paving the way for a deliberate attack.
The attack involved the generation of two crafted service queue transactions with backdated cycle numbers and extra fields, reusing a valid historical certificate, and evading normal validation by getting into the 0 element of the array. This manipulation enabled the attacker to trick the network into believing a single node had been active since 2019, resulting in the inflated staking reward.
To address this issue, a mandatory security patch, Validator v1.19.3, has been released to correct the underlying flaw and implement additional defensive checks. It is crucial for validators to ensure their nodes are running the latest patched version, which can be checked on the GUI or CLI.
To prevent such incidents in the future, the team is evaluating the integration of external monitoring and alerting tools, such as anomaly detection and on-chain analytics, to improve proactive detection. Additionally, a bug bounty program will be announced to encourage responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities.
Regular SHM holders are not affected by this incident, and no action is required. To keep the community informed of critical vulnerabilities, patches, or security-related announcements, a public security email list will be launched.
The website team would like to acknowledge the contributions of community member NoviceCrypto and others involved for reporting and helping monitor the discrepancy quickly. The suspicious staking reward was voluntarily returned by the attacker and burned in a transaction on July 30, 2025.
This incident underscores the importance of certificate validation in blockchain networks. Proper handling of certificates is crucial for identity and authorization, and an off-by-one error can undermine this trust, allowing unauthorized actions like fraudulent token minting.
[1] cert-verifier-js: A popular library used for certificate verification. [2] Certificate validation failures due to handling certificate expiry. [3] Certificate validation failures due to invalid signatures. [4] Proper handling of certificates in staking or reward systems requires strict validation and mapping of certificates to identities/accounts. [5] Misconfiguration as a cause of certificate validation failures.
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