User Disables 69% of Dogecoin Nodes

On December 12, Andreas Kohl, co-founder of the Bitcoin sidechain Sequentia, reported that he managed to disable 69% of the Dogecoin network nodes by exploiting a previously discovered vulnerability.

“Oops, I did something and it seems I disabled more than half of all Dogecoin nodes,” Kohl admitted.

Following the intervention, the number of active nodes decreased from 647 to 258.

The exploiter explained that he used a flaw in the system previously identified by researcher Tobias Ruck. The post he referenced describes the DogeReaper vulnerability, which allows any node to be remotely disabled if its ID in the network is known.

These identifiers are publicly available information, making DogeReaper dangerous for arbitrary nodes or even the stable operation of the entire protocol. However, the vulnerability does not pose a direct threat to users’ funds.

At the time of writing, there are 356 nodes operating in the Dogecoin network. Researchers have shared detailed information about the exploit with miners and exchanges, and patches have been released for most systems.

Earlier, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas suggested the possibility of a Dogecoin ETF.