BitMEX, a market leading cryptocurrency exchange, recently announced in an official blog post, that its research team had discovered a potential bug in Ethereum’s Parity full nodes.
Analyzing data from Nodestats.org lead researchers to believe that while not completely synced to the blockchain, the node’s client was reporting that it had completed the process while being 450,000 blocks behind. The entire synchronization had lasted 12 days up to this point, with a few more days remaining to completion, based on the progress so far.
Whether or not this is a software bug and how it might affect users on the blockchain remains to be seen. All in all, the issue raises some concern, but the possibility of someone being able to abuse the situation with malicious intent is close to null.
What Are Parity Full Nodes and What’s the Issue
Parity is an industry leading development platform. While it can also serve as a wallet for Ethereum and other crypto coins, it is most commonly used to provide developers and organizations with the tools to connect either different blockchains, create advanced smart contracts or in general – provide the basis for creating new and advanced blockchain related technologies.
As such, its nodes are commonly used as a reference point and highly trusted. It’s not by chance that BitMEX decided to create their own website to collect statistics on Ethereum nodes and that they chose Parity Full Nodes as their reference point. Owing to this fact, the research department of BitMEX came across the issue that while syncing to those nodes, their own Ethereum Parity client was wrongly reporting that it had completed the blockchain synchronization, despite being 450,000 blocks behind.
It’s too early to tell whether or not the data integrity of Ethereum Parity full nodes is compromised. Slow initial sync is a concern for most Ethereum users, despite the network being far from the limit where blockchain update rates are ahead of synchronization capabilities. It’s also uncertain if BitMEX’s team was using an SSD to host their copy or an HDD, which might explain the slow-down in syncing. If the other nodes that were being used as reference points were also running HDDs it might’ve had a cumulative effect but due to lack of information on that part, it’s pure speculation.
Closing Thoughts on Future Implications
Parity full nodes represent a large percentage of Ethereum blockchain connections. A detailed investigation into the matter is a high priority as the ramifications of this “bug” have the potential to affect a large portion of users. At this point in time, the opportunities for an exploit are highly limited and hackers would need to execute an attack of such complexity that the scenario is highly unlikely. Still, the issue cannot be overlooked and keeping tabs on developments is recommended.