Home
News
- A significant bug was spotted on Monero’s decoy selection algorithm
- Security breach allows the identification of the output transactions among the decoys
- Monero developers say that there was no risk of funds being stolen
The bug will compromise the transaction privacy of the investors
Monero developers are working to breach a chink in the system security, which will compromise the transaction privacy of the investors. The chink will expose the occurrence of an output transaction made right away after receiving funds. Developers of the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) have identified the bug that could affect user transaction privacy.
Monero warned users of a significant bug that was spotted on Monero’s decoy selection algorithm.
The algorithm camouflages the actual output transactions among ten decoy transactions arranged in a ring. The system was perfected to enhance security and make it challenging to identify actual output transactions among the decoys.
The chink in the security armour was discovered by developer Justin Berman. The security breach allows identifying the output transactions among the decoys if the user spends funds immediately following lock time in the first two blocks or 20 minutes after receiving funds.
Possibility of tracking the occurrence of an XMR transaction
However, the developers have assured users that the bug does not pose a risk for information about addresses or transaction amounts to be leaked. It only allows the possibility of tracing the occurrence of an XMR transaction. Monero developers also added that there was no risk of funds being stolen. The bug persists in the official wallet code today.
Developers asked all users to follow precautions until a solution is found
An XMR contributor on Reddit revealed that the latest bug impacts transactions which are made from the past. To preempt the risks, developers from Monero recommend users wait for an hour or longer before spending the newly received XMR. Developers asked all users to follow this precaution until a future wallet software update to mitigate the potential privacy risks is rolled out. The developers also made it clear that there is no need for a complete network upgrade or a hard fork.
XMR, which was launched in 2014, is a primary privacy-centric cryptocurrency. It has been created to provide secure, private and untraceable transactions. It employs a particular type of cryptography to ensure that all its transactions remain 100% untraceable and unlinkable. By Market Capitalization, Monero is the 29th largest cryptocurrency. It also happens to be the most significant privacy-centric digital currency by value. At the time of writing, XMR is trading at $222, down 3.8% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
In the past, numerous attempts were made by global regulators to crack Monero’s privacy codes. The United States Internal Revenue Service even offered a bounty of up to $625,000 to anyone who can trace Monero transactions.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
