Loading HuntDB...

GHSA-9856-9gg9-qcmq

GitHub Security Advisory

Ethereum Contains Consensus Flaw During Block Processing

✓ GitHub Reviewed MODERATE Has CVE

Advisory Details

### Impact

A vulnerability in the Geth EVM could cause a node to reject the canonical chain.

### Description

A memory-corruption bug within the EVM can cause a consensus error, where vulnerable nodes obtain a different `stateRoot` when processing a maliciously crafted transaction. This, in turn, would lead to the chain being split in two forks.

All Geth versions supporting the London hard fork are vulnerable (which predates London), so all users should update.

This bug was exploited on Mainnet at block 13107518, leading to a minority chain split.

### Patches

A patch is included in the `v1.10.8` release.
The exact patch to fix the issue is contained within this [commit](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/pull/23381/commits/4d4879cafd1b3c906fc184a8c4a357137465128f)

### Workarounds

No workarounds exist, save to update and/or apply the patch commit.

### References.

Post-mortem [write-up](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/blob/master/docs/postmortems/2021-08-22-split-postmortem.md).

### Credits

The bug was found by @guidovranken (working for [Sentnl](https://sentnl.io/) during an audit of the [Telos EVM](https://www.telos.net/evm)) and reported via [email protected].

### For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

* Open an issue in [go-ethereum](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/)
* Email us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Affected Packages

Go github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum
Affected versions: 1.10.0 (fixed in 1.10.8)

Related CVEs

Key Information

GHSA ID
GHSA-9856-9gg9-qcmq
Published
August 30, 2021 4:15 PM
Last Modified
January 30, 2025 2:37 PM
CVSS Score
5.0 /10
Primary Ecosystem
Go
Primary Package
github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum
GitHub Reviewed
✓ Yes

Dataset

Last updated: July 13, 2025 6:28 AM

Data from GitHub Advisory Database. This information is provided for research and educational purposes.