{"id":94756,"date":"2026-02-26T21:08:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=94756"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:10:16","slug":"ai-audit-uncovers-critical-bug-in-ethereum-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ai-audit-uncovers-critical-bug-in-ethereum-client\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Audit Uncovers Critical Bug in Ethereum Client"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence from Octane Security has identified a critical flaw affecting the functionality of the Ethereum client Nethermind.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">1\/ Octane\u2019s AI found a high-severity liveness bug in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nethermind?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Nethermind<\/a> execution client that could have stopped local block production for 38% of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ethereum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ethereum<\/a> mainnet validators.<\/p>\n<p>This bug was patched via the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ethereumfndn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ethereumfndn<\/a> bug bounty program, with no exploitation observed. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ebdUt31WC8\">pic.twitter.com\/ebdUt31WC8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Octane Security (@octane_security) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/octane_security\/status\/2026691133980684775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to auditors, the vulnerability allowed for the halting of local block production for 38% of mainnet validators.<\/p>\n<p>The issue arose from a lack of length equality checks when validating transactions with large binary data arrays (BLOB) in Nethermind as they were added to the pool.<\/p>\n<p>Potential attackers could create an incorrect operation with BLOB objects, leading to skipped slots with genuine requests.<\/p>\n<p>The problem was discovered during the integration of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ethereum-activity-surpasses-l2-networks-following-fusaka-update\">Fusaka<\/a> update. It affected both the testnet and mainnet.<\/p>\n<p>The bug has been fixed, and an in-depth analysis found no attacks exploiting it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis is where automated security shines. Edge cases on the client side are difficult to analyze manually, but they are easy to verify once detected [with AI],\u201d representatives of Octane Security addressed blockchain co-founder Vitalik Buterin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Ethereum Foundation confirmed the high level of danger, awarding the company the maximum bounty of $50,000 under the bug bounty program.<\/p>\n<p>In February, OpenAI, in collaboration with Paradigm, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/openai-unveils-benchmark-for-ai-agents-ability-to-hack-smart-contracts\">released<\/a> a benchmark to assess the ability of AI agents to hack smart contracts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence from Octane Security has identified a critical flaw affecting the functionality of the Ethereum client Nethermind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"AI from Octane Security found a critical flaw in Ethereum client Nethermind.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,967,1111,46],"class_list":["post-94756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-audit","tag-cybersecurity","tag-ethereum"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"229","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"AI from Octane Security found a critical flaw in Ethereum client Nethermind.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94758,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94756\/revisions\/94758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}