GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go

GHSA-xc79-566c-j4qx Parallax is vulnerable to DoS via malicious p2p message

HIGH Published 2025-10-10 Modified 2025-10-23 Official page ↗
Ecosystem
Go
Packages
github.com/microstack-tech/parallax
Severity
High
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weaknesses
CWE-400
Reviewed
2025-10-10

Affected packages

• Go github.com/microstack-tech/parallax: < 0.1.4 → fixed in 0.1.4

Description

Impact A vulnerable node can be made to consume very large amounts of memory when handling specially crafted p2p messages sent from an attacker node. In order to carry out the attack, the attacker establishes a peer connections to the victim, and sends a malicious `GetBlockHeadersRequest` message with a `count` of `0`, using the `Parallax` protocol. In `descendants := chain.GetHeadersFrom(num+count-1, count-1)`, the value of `count-1` is passed to the function `GetHeadersFrom(number, count uint64)` as parameter `count`. Due to integer overflow, `UINT64_MAX` value is then passed as the `count` argument to function `GetHeadersFrom(number, count uint64)`. This allows an attacker to bypass `maxHeadersServe` and request all headers from the latest block back to the genesis block. Patches The fix has been included in the Parallax client version `0.1.4` and onwards. The vulnerability was patched in: https://github.com/microstack-tech/parallax/commit/f759e9090aaf00a43c616d7cbd133c44bb1ed01e Workarounds No workarounds have been made public. Credit This issue was disclosed responsibly by DongHan Kim via the Ethereum bug bounty program, the cooperation is appreciated.

Related

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption weakness

References