XRP Ledger’s Critical Bug Fixed After Nearly a Decade
- A critical bug in the XRP Ledger’s payment engine was disclosed and patched in September.
- The flaw, an integer overflow, existed since the current payment engine was written in 2015.
- No evidence suggests the bug was exploited, according to XRP Ledger developers.
- The fix bypassed the usual amendment process due to its severity and potential risk.
- Over 80% of trusted validators were running the fixed version by September 25.
A critical vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to create counterfeit XRP sat unnoticed in the XRP Ledger for nearly a decade before being patched last month. The flaw was an integer overflow that could be triggered under specific conditions, but no normal transactions would activate it.
The patch was implemented urgently without following the standard amendment procedure due to the high risk involved if exposed publicly before fixing it on most nodes.(Source)
