It seems that digital currencies like Bitcoin will never stop facing problems. And any day could prove to be the last for digital currency infrastructure. In this case, the threat comes from a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
While developers issue new patches and appeal for software updates, Bitcoin miners don't seem to be stopping.
The patch confirms that a DDoS vulnerability (CVE-2018-17144) has been discovered in Bitcoin versions 0.14.0 to 0.16.2, which could be exploited by miners. Users are advised to upgrade their Bitcoin software to 0.16.3 to avoid any issues.
Obviously, attacking Bitcoin is not as easy as it sounds. In this case, the attacker would have to sacrifice around $80,000 worth of Bitcoin to disrupt the entire infrastructure. However, someone willing to sacrifice 12.5BTC ($80,000) could pose a significant threat to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin advocates believe the vulnerability is not a major problem, given that Bitcoin is massively decentralized and cannot be compromised by a single attacker. However, TheNextWeb notes that the situation could be worse – if the infected cryptocurrencies decide to distribute the Bitcoin Core version, which is susceptible to DDoS attacks.
Responding promptly to new vulnerabilities is essential to maintaining the transparency of the technology. And as for the threat, it will certainly take more than one attack to bring down Bitcoin.
