Bitcoin articles have been added to the US National Vulnerability Database.
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) identified Bitcoin cryptography as a cybersecurity threat on December 9, noting the security flaw that enabled the development of the Ordinal protocol in 2022.
According to the database records, the data carrier limit can be bypassed in some versions of Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots by masquerading as code. “In 2022 and 2023, Inscription was exploited in the wild,” the document says.
Being added to the NVD list means that a specific cybersecurity vulnerability has been identified, addressed, and deemed important for public awareness. The database is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the US Department of Commerce.
The vulnerability of the Bitcoin network is currently being analyzed. As one effect, large amounts of non-transactional data can spam the blockchain, increasing network size and affecting performance and payments.
On NVD's website, a recent post from Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr on X (formerly Twitter) is cited as a source of information. Dashjir revealed that the scripts exploit a Bitcoin Core vulnerability to spam the network. “I think it's like getting spam when you have to check your contacts every day. It slows down the process,” one user wrote in the discussion.
Why is it relevant to the law?
An article includes additional information for a specific satoshi (the smallest unit of bitcoin). This data can be any digital form such as image, text or other type of media. Each time data is added to a satoshi, it becomes a permanent part of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Although data embedding has been part of the Bitcoin protocol for some time, its popularity only increased with the arrival of Ordinals at the end of 2022, this protocol allows special digital assets to be included directly in Bitcoin transactions, such as non-viable tokens (NFTs) run on the Ethereum network.
By 2023, the volume of Ordinals transactions would clog the Bitcoin network multiple times, causing more competition to confirm transactions, thereby increasing fees and decreasing processing times.
If the bug is stuck, it has the potential to limit normal texts on the network. When asked if the vulnerability is fixed, the standard and BRC-20 tokens will “cease to be a thing,” Dashjir replied, “That's right.” But because it's immutable across the network, existing texts remain intact.
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