Overview
- An AI-assisted scanner called Project Loupe flagged three vulnerabilities that a Bitcoin Core contributor verified after the tool’s report on October 23.
- Bitcoin Core published patched point releases across four maintained branches (versions 29.5, 30.4, 31.2, and 32.1) and urged operators to update immediately.
- Two medium-severity bugs can exhaust memory or crash nodes running Windows, macOS, and BSD by abusing TCP/connection handling and message queuing, while Linux nodes are not affected by the TCP-specific issue.
- A third, lower-severity issue can corrupt undo files used in block reorganizations and remains a risk for 32-bit systems and nodes storing chain data on FAT32 drives despite the fix.
- The faster disclosure policy aims to limit attacker advantage from AI rediscovery but shortens testing windows, which raises operational trade-offs because node downtime can disrupt relaying and validation services even though private keys and funds are not exposed.