Security context

Highlights

Denial of Service: 25 prior fixes. Scrutinize any change in this area.

src/main.cpp: most-fixed (12 issues). Treat as high-risk during review.

18 high-severity fixes in this history; regressions here are high-impact.

Recurring patterns

Integer Overflow: Unvalidated transaction inputs and outputs could overflow, allowing attackers to bypass transaction limits and potentially generate arbitrary coins. Strict bounds checks against max currency thresholds must be enforced during connection inputs and checks.

Denial of Service: Expensive ECDSA cryptographic signature validations were historically executed before cheaper transaction fee or size checks. Reordering validation steps to verify cheap rules first is critical to prevent CPU exhaustion.

Cryptographic Issues: Accepting block structures without ensuring target proof-of-stake and signature checks allows the injection of invalid or malicious blocks into the blockchain. All block ingestion paths must perform mandatory verification.