revert(net): remove header-accept RandomX check; keep nMinimumChainWork + #8

An adversarial re-review found the header-accept RandomX check (b9fdc7981 +
7e9b2c661 header-PoW + d2124a303 defer) to be a persistent source of
consensus-liveness bugs: it derives the RandomX key from the ACTIVE chain
(hush_chainactive), the wrong branch for reorg/side-branch/catch-up headers, so
it repeatedly false-rejected validly-mined headers and DoS(100)-hard-banned
honest peers (IBD-tail catch-up and deep-reorg cases); the defer fix and an
extend-tip fix each addressed one case while leaving/creating others (an
extend-tip variant re-opened an unbounded post-IBD side-branch flood). It only
mitigated a low-harm resource DoS -- forged headers bloat mapBlockIndex memory/
disk but are never SELECTED (nMinimumChainWork) and the full RandomX + target
check still runs at block-connect. Revert to fCheckPOW=0 at header-accept
(original behavior). A comment in AcceptBlockHeader records that any re-attempt
must derive the key from the header's OWN ancestry (pindexPrev->GetAncestor),
never the active chain.

Also hardens two issues the same review found:
- #8 IBD header cap now bounds against the VALIDATED chainActive.Height()
  (attacker-hard) instead of pindexBestHeader, which a forward-extending flood
  advanced in lockstep, defeating the cap.
- opreturn_burn only emits a change output above the dust threshold; a sub-dust
  change made the returned tx non-standard/unrelayable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-14 20:24:45 -05:00
parent 5951ee118a
commit bf3c33c53a
3 changed files with 24 additions and 40 deletions

View File

@@ -6437,8 +6437,11 @@ UniValue opreturn_burn(const UniValue& params, bool fHelp, const CPubKey& mypk)
// Return the unspent surplus (selected inputs - burn amount - txfee) as change to a
// wallet-owned address; without this the entire surplus is silently paid as miner fee.
CAmount change = normalInputs - nAmount - txfee;
if ( change > 0 )
mtx.vout.push_back(CTxOut(change, GetScriptForDestination(myPubkey.GetID())));
// Only emit change if it clears the dust threshold; a sub-dust output would make the tx
// non-standard (unrelayable). Sub-dust surplus is folded into the fee (standard wallet behavior).
CTxOut changeOut(change, GetScriptForDestination(myPubkey.GetID()));
if ( change > 0 && !changeOut.IsDust(::minRelayTxFee) )
mtx.vout.push_back(changeOut);
ret.push_back(Pair("hex", EncodeHexTx(mtx)));
return(ret);
}