I’m curious concerning the course of Bitcoin builders observe to deal with and resolve essential software program vulnerabilities, equivalent to bugs or flaws, that could possibly be exploited by attackers to disrupt the community or steal funds.
Think about this hypothetical situation: I uncover a big software program vulnerability in Bitcoin’s software program, as an example, a bug that could possibly be used to destabilise the community. Suppose I can create a transaction that causes a Bitcoin node to crash when it processes the transaction and verifies its compliance with consensus guidelines. This error could be simply reproducible by relying the transaction to a node working the latest model (at present Bitcoin Core 24.0.1). Nodes working on older releases would stay unaffected. In a matter of seconds, such a bug may crash over 30% of the energetic Bitcoin nodes working model 24.0.1, inflicting appreciable disruption to the community, albeit briefly.
As an open-source undertaking, Bitcoin’s supply code is publicly accessible on GitHub. Bugs are sometimes reported by means of the problem tracker at https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/points. Nevertheless, on this hypothetical scenario, I might select to “responsibly disclose” the bug to one of many distinguished Bitcoin Core builders.
My inquiry is twofold: How can a extreme safety bug be fastened in a brand new model with out the general public turning into conscious of the repair, stopping anybody from exploiting the bug? Alternatively, what steps would Bitcoin builders soak up such a case?