Node hosts of the cryptocurrency NEO, dubbed the Chinese Ethereum, have been hit by some disturbing news regarding the security of their earnings. Accredited to outdated software, a post on security company Tencent’s Weibo page (a Chinese microblogging site), notifies users of a critical software vulnerability, that could potentially compromise all their wallet funds.
Updating NEO’s CLI Client
Keeping in mind the open-source nature of cryptocurrencies and how many users there are, running with the default configuration for your node opens you to certain risks. As a rule of thumb, modifying the configuration file to fit your own needs is always recommended, as it adds an additional layer of security. In that line of thought, if you’re an owner of NEO tokens, you’d better read the upcoming lines carefully.
The bug in NEO’s Command Line Interface was discovered by Tencent’s security labs. Affected users are those that have set up their network node using the default configuration. While the issue is with the remote access function, it is easily remedied.
The official post states:
When a user starts the NEO network node with the default configuration and opens the wallet, the digital currency may be remotely stolen. Tencent Security Zhanyi Lab has submitted a risk warning to the NEO development community and reminded NEO node maintainers and small NEO coin holders to pay attention to wallet security, update the client version in time, and pay attention to abnormal transfer behavior.
The recommendation from Tencent experts is for users to change the port of the RPC function, enabling the HTTPS-based JSON-RPC interface and setting a firewall rule. Furthermore, altering the BindAddress to 127.0.0.1 is also required.
For any other NEO enthusiasts, updating your wallet to the latest version should have you covered, but do keep track of any abnormal transactions.
NEO’s Price Not Affected
Despite the controversial headline, the value of NEO hasn’t experienced any sudden shifts. The development team has been informed of the issue but meanwhile, the fact that it doesn’t affect a large portion of users may be the reason for the lack of change in the coin’s price.
With a market cap nearing 500 million USD, the Chinese Ethereum’s devaluation has been in line with general market trends. While the coin’s worth peaked at $162 at the beginning of 2018, the price has since then dropped in levels owing to the overall market decline.
In light of recent events and the rise of cryptocurrency related thefts, the lack of drastic changes in NEO’s price may indicate that users have grown more resilient and less troubled by such news. Whether or not this trend of stability is going to last can be speculated, however, what can be said for certain is that this issue is not the first, nor the last in the cryptocurrency world.