Dogecoin Network Hit by DogeReaper Exploit: What Went Wrong?

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69% of Dogecoin’s active nodes were rendered dysfunctional after a hacker exploited the blockchain network’s weakness. The attack which affected the older versions of the network has presented the dogecoin community with security and robustness issues.

The Extent of the Exploit

Data highlighted by blockchain analytics platform Blockchain, the number of active Dogecoin nodes dropped from 647 to 205 earlier this week. Although some nodes have come back online, bumping the total figure back up to 331 as of now, the event exposes a major weakness in the network design.

The exploit, known as “DogeReaper,” was first reported by security engineer Tobias Ruck. It enables hackers to launch segmentation faults at Dogecoin nodes from a distance, thereby terminating them.

Hacker Claims Responsibility

On X, Sequentia developer Andreas Kohl confessed to using the DogeReaper vulnerability on a decade-old laptop from El Salvador’s countryside. He said it was only the old nodes and they are the majority of the network while centralised exchanges and major custodians were not impacted.

“Many Dogecoin users didn’t pay attention because they can use exchanges or have some kind of third party that holds their coins,”

Kohl said.

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Contracted Dogecoin Network Consequences

An attack on this scale shows a crucial vulnerability in Dogecoin’s system of decentralization. In the past, researchers have related the exploit to something like the ‘Death Note’, which is from Japanese manga, where, once someone’s name is written, the character drops dead. Like the case of the DogeReaper flaw, it can paralyze the network, stopping all its transactions and block generation for days.

Critics say, however, that the attack presents a more significant problem. Despite the hack, Dogecoin’s price stabilized at $0.4073 at the time of writing, down 2.54% according to data by Coinmarketcap . The team is now under pressure to fix the loophole as soon as possible and rebuild the confidence of their network.