Alternate names

Affected Technology/Components

Affects/does not affect specific implementations

Extended Description

Modes of Introduction

Applicable Platforms

Common Consequences

Demonstrative Examples

Observed Examples

Taxonomy Events

Related Attack Patterns

RPC API Exposure

If an API is improperly exposed an attacker can attack it

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8023156

Bitcoin lightning - Eclipse Attack Time Dilation

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-lightning-network-vulnerabilities-not-exploited-yet

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-lightning-network-vulnerabilities-not-exploited-yet

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-lightning-network-vulnerabilities-not-exploited-yet

Bitcoin lightning - spamming payment micropayments

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-lightning-network-vulnerabilities-not-exploited-yet

Consensus Attack

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4942/what-is-a-finney-attack

Consensus Attack

By isolating a node the time signal can be manipulated getting the victim out of synchronization

Consensus Attack

Certain cryptographic operations (such as using CBC or ECB incorrectly) allow blocks to be re-ordered and the results will still decrypt properly

The Blockchain/DLT network lacks hashing capacity, an attacker can rent sufficient hashing power to execute a 51% Attack

Consensus Majority Attack

DLTI-2020-01-26-1, DLTI-2020-02-11-1, DLTI-2018-10-24-1

Partition Routing Attack

Consensus Majority Attack

Unlimited node creation

By creating a large number of fake peers in a network (peer to peer or otherwise) an attacker can cause real nodes to slow down or become non responsive as they attempt to connect to the newly announced peers.

https://lisk.io/blog/development/lisk-core-2.0.1-released-fix-p2p-network-vulnerability

Blockchain Peer flooding Attack Slowloris variant

By creating a large number of slow peers (real systems that respond very slowly to network requests) in a network an attacker can cause real nodes to slow down or become non responsive as they attempt to connect to the newly announced peers. Unlike fake peers that do not exist these slowloris peers are real but communicate slowly enough to hold sockets and resources open for minutes or hours.

https://lisk.io/blog/development/lisk-core-2.0.1-released-fix-p2p-network-vulnerability

Alternative history attack, history rewrite attack

Double Spending

34% Attack against BFT network, a specific instance of Consensus Majority Attack

Consensus Majority Attack

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/Glossary/blob/master/glossary/3/34%25%20attack%20(aka%20Consensus%20HiJacking).md

51% Attack against DLT network, a specific instance of Consensus Majority Attack

Consensus Majority Attack

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/Glossary/blob/master/glossary/5/51%25%20attack%20(aka%20Consensus%20HiJacking).md

Attacks against the consensus protocol and system in use can take many forms and are not limited to gaining control of the consensus mechanism but can also be used to slow down consensus for example

Consensus Delay Attacks can allow malicious miners to gain time in order to execute other attacks

Consensus Attack

Attackers can try to gain a consensus majority in order to control the contents of the Blockchain

Consensus Attack

Attackers use spilled or otherwise leaked credentials and account names to try name/password combinations with a higher likelihood of success against services requiring authentication

https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Credential_stuffing

Cryptomining (also known as Cryptojacking) involves an attacker using a victims compute resources to mine crypto currencies, this can range from using malware to stolen credentials to gain access to systems

Cryptojacking Malware

Attackers use dictionaries of known passwords, a subset of brute force attacks, this can be used against services requiring login, or against cryptographically protected data requiring a password or passphrase to access it such as a wallet

Credential stuffing

DoS against Ethereum 2.0 validator to trigger penalty for being offline

https://codefi.consensys.net/blog/rewards-and-penalties-on-ethereum-20-phase-0

CWE-494 / SIngle perspective

Consensus Majority Attack

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/Glossary/blob/master/glossary/E/Eclipse%20Attack.md

https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/9akg1y/eosio_ram_exploit_please_read/

ERC20 token transfer to self token address (and possibly other tokens)

When sending ERC-20 (and possibly other types) tokens to a contract it is possible to send them to the contract itself resulting in the tokens becoming "stuck". Two defenses to rpevent this are possible 1) add a check to prevent this, which costs gas, 2) Have wallets/other software check for and prevent this, 3) set the token balance of the contract to infinity so an integer overflow occurs if it tries to transfer tokens to itself (please note this may have other unintended consequences)

https://twitter.com/krzKaczor/status/1367884793988407302

Ethereum Solidity prior to 0.5.0 view promise not enforced

Ethereum Solidity prior to 0.5.0 did not enforce the view promise

https://circle.cloudsecurityalliance.org/community-home1/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=133&MessageKey=2fce11ab-c223-4718-8310-3058e0a2fbb6&CommunityKey=a9786cbe-105a-420f-a353-8bbe10ab684d&tab=digestviewer&ReturnUrl=%2fcommunity-home1%2fdigestviewer%3ftab%3ddigestviewer%26CommunityKey%3da9786cbe-105a-420f-a353-8bbe10ab684d&SuccessMsg=Thank%20you%20for%20submitting%20your%20message.

The evil maid attack is generally accepted as a situation where someone has temporary access to your hardware (e.g. a hotel maid) for several minutes or hours, and does not want to leave evidence of tampering if possible.

Failure to remove developer or test credentials or addresses from a SmartContract

https://paidnetwork.medium.com/paid-network-attack-postmortem-march-7-2021-9e4c0fef0e07

Failure to update software with known security vulnerabilities can result in known vulnerabilities being present and exploited

Flash Loan Attacks

Malicious Mining

Front running by looking at the contents of the mempool or other public sources of transactions that are being processed but have not yet been finalized. Attackers can potentially "beat" items in the mempool by offering higher payments for their own transactions

https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/known_attacks/ https://medium.com/@danrobinson/ethereum-is-a-dark-forest-ecc5f0505dff

Front running by monitoring oracles especially where the oracle data has to be entered on chain to be acted on can create arbitrage oppurtunities

https://medium.com/@galvanek.m/synthetix-the-battlefield-a15a7104587c

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.04507.pdf

Gas Limit DoS on the Blockchain Network via Block Stuffing

Block Stuffing

https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/known_attacks/

A crypto mining system rewards participants using a gift card scheme, e.g. a "hosted wallet" that can only be used to send currency to a specific Exchange once a minimum balance is achieved.

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/gsd-database/blob/main/2022/1000xxx/GSD-2022-1000002.json

Using weak hash functions (e.g. MD5) or using them incorrectly (e.g. failure to include a nonce to prevent replay attacks) can result in vulnerabilities

DLT/Blockchains can include immutable data, protocols, smart contract implementations and so on, thus it is possible that a vulnerability can be found in a component that cannot be updated at all, or reasonably (e.g. it would require a governance decision or change to update)

Implementation of something they should use a standard library for

Should we codify some version of "Not invented here" syndrome as a vulnerability class?

DLTI-2019-02-26-01

If a transaction lacks information it is possible that the wrong chain may be used when sending the transaction in.

A number of malicious web browser extensions have been found that steal crypto currency credentials or conduct crypto mining on the users web browser

DLTI-2020-04-14-4

Software is built using private packages hosted internally, however if the system fails internally it may attempt to pull the package from the public repositories which might be attacker controlled

https://medium.com/@alex.birsan/dependency-confusion-4a5d60fec610

Network routing attacks allow attackers to partition the blockchain network (for example via DNS or BGP based attacks) or otherwise manipulate nodes in order to aid in other attacks

Consensus Majority Attack

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/Glossary/blob/master/glossary/N/Network%20Routing%20Attacks.md

In some blockchains it is possible to create accounts/wallets that are not present on the blockchain which can result in problems

Some consensus protocol require staking of assets in order to participate in decision making (consensus or governance), if an attacker can stake nothing or nothing of value they can participate in decision making (consensus or governance) and influence it when theys hould not be able to.

A "crypto wallet" is hosted off chain on an internal ledger, transactions cannot be made outside of this off chain hosted solution (e.g. with a single exchange).

https://github.com/cloudsecurityalliance/gsd-database/blob/main/2022/1000xxx/GSD-2022-1000002.json

Access to "initWallet" method was not properly restricted in the Parity multisig wallet software

DLTI-2017-11-06-1

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5072/what-is-pool-hopping

Requirement of keeping real world PII data associated with crypto wallet addresses

Some regulatory frameworks require real world PII data such as name and address to be kept associated with crypto wallet addresses, this allows current net worth and future net worth to be determined, as well as associating data that can be used to execute real world attacks (e.g. kidnapping) with actual assets that are highly liquid and easy to transfer.

Selfish Mining Attack (Block Withholding Attack)

Malicious Mining

Through a number of means (stolen credentials, social engineering, phishing, etc.) an attacker can hijack a phone number (the "SIM") and redirect calls/texts to a device under their control, if SMS or phone based 2FA/MFA is used this would allow the attacker to use it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ntVHuprosF15UdDU7EOjm6Kfq2NXB-IATuhFP0a7NZY/edit