Experts Point Out Cyber Security Risks in Bitcoin Network
Cyber security experts sound the alarm as they find security vulnerabilities in Bitcoin, these security issues point at Ordinals Protocol and inscriptions
A security risk in Bitcoin has been discovered and flagged by The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and this flaw points to the Ordinals Protocol, on Dec. 9. This flaw lets data be hidden as code in Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots versions, affecting the network, the report states.
Bitcoin Network Under Threat
The NVD records major cyber security threats and vulnerabilities, it is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). According to NVD Bitcoin's issue could lead to a lot of non-transactional data on the blockchain which could increase its size and affect its transaction fees, speed, and costs.
NVD referenced A Bitcoin Core developer's post on social media on their website. This developer, Luke Dashjr, points out that inscriptions abuse a Bitcoin Core bug to overload the network with unwanted data. Another person compared it to being spammed with a lot of mail making it difficult to find important mail and relevant data
Ordinals and the Vulnerability
Inscriptions embed extra data, like images or text, onto a Bitcoin unit, making it permanent on the blockchain. Ordinals, a new protocol from late 2022, made this popular by allowing unique digital arts to be added to Bitcoin transactions, similar to Ethereum's NFTs.
These Ordinals transactions have congested the Bitcoin network in 2023, causing higher fees and slower processing times. Fixing this bug could limit Ordinals on the network, but existing inscriptions would stay due to the blockchain's permanent nature.
