Validity check for signed Frontier-specific extrinsic not called in block execution
Description
Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. In the newly introduced signed Frontier-specific extrinsic for pallet-ethereum, a large part of transaction validation logic was only called in transaction pool validation, but not in block execution. Malicious validators can take advantage of this to put invalid transactions into a block. The attack is limited in that the signature is always validated, and the majority of the validation is done again in the subsequent pallet-evm execution logic. However, do note that a chain ID replay attack was possible. In addition, spamming attacks are of main concerns, while they are limited by Substrate block size limits and other factors. The issue is patched in commit 146bb48849e5393004be5c88beefe76fdf009aba.
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
Affected packages
Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.
| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
pallet-ethereumcrates.io | <= 3.0.0 | — |
Affected products
2- Range: < 146bb48
Patches
Vulnerability mechanics
References
6- github.com/advisories/GHSA-vj62-g63v-f8mfghsaADVISORY
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41138ghsaADVISORY
- github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/146bb48849e5393004be5c88beefe76fdf009abaghsax_refsource_MISCWEB
- github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/495ghsaWEB
- github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/497ghsax_refsource_MISCWEB
- github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-vj62-g63v-f8mfghsax_refsource_CONFIRMWEB
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