Post
Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Re: Cheap way to attack blockchain
by
basil00
on 05/11/2015, 01:21:44 UTC
Looks like the attacker has successfully launched another attack.  This time using the address 3EgSUauJG5N27AUfQwiUfjAhHe6y9AKdVs corresponding to the script:

Code:
OP_IF 0x42412fb4 OP_15 OP_CHECKMULTISIG OP_ENDIF OP_1

This time the attacker managed to successfully fill the 20,000 sigOp limit for block #382053, where 1245x15 = 18675 are fake sigOps arising from the attack transactions.  This meant that no more transactions (legitimate or otherwise) could be included in the block, leading to an underfull block of ~288KB (of which ~68KB are the attack txs).  Note that the network is currently running at capacity, with 1MB or 750KB blocks the norm.

The new attack was limited to a single block.  Also the attacker used a low fee rate of ~18sat/byte.  A higher fee rate would have made the attack for effective (but more expensive).