CVE-2018-17145
Bitcoin Inventory Out-of-Memory Denial-of-Service Attack (CVE-2018-17145)
Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction inv messages with random hashes, aka INVDoS. NOTE: this can also affect other cryptocurrencies, e.g., if they were forked from Bitcoin Core after 2017-11-15.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction inv messages with random hashes, aka INVDoS. NOTE: this can also affect other cryptocurrencies, e.g., if they were forked from Bitcoin Core after 2017-11-15.
- Record
CVE-2018-17145- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction inv messages with random hashes, aka INVDoS. NOTE: this can also affect other cryptocurrencies, e.g., if they were forked from Bitcoin Core after 2017-11-15.
- Record
CVE-2018-17145- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-1115 No score
Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction inv messages with random hashes, aka INVDoS. NOTE: this can also affect other cryptocurrencies, e.g., if they were forked from Bitcoin Core after 2017-11-15.
- Record
EUVD-2020-1115- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-hx3r-jv9q-85jw
Bitcoin Inventory Out-of-Memory Denial-of-Service Attack (CVE-2018-17145)
There was an easily exploitable uncontrolled memory resource consumption denial-of-service vulnerability that existed in the peer-to-peer network code of three implementations of Bitcoin and several alternative chains.
For more details please see: https://invdos.net/
For the paper: https://invdos.net/paper/CVE-2018-17145.pdf
- Record
GHSA-hx3r-jv9q-85jw- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Bitcoin Core 0.16.x before 0.16.2 and Bitcoin Knots 0.16.x before 0.16.2 allow remote denial of service via a flood of multiple transaction inv messages with random hashes, aka INVDoS. NOTE: this can also affect other cryptocurrencies, e.g., if they were forked from Bitcoin Core after 2017-11-15.
- Record
CVE-2018-17145- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-hx3r-jv9q-85jw
Bitcoin Inventory Out-of-Memory Denial-of-Service Attack (CVE-2018-17145)
There was an easily exploitable uncontrolled memory resource consumption denial-of-service vulnerability that existed in the peer-to-peer network code of three implementations of Bitcoin and several alternative chains.
For more details please see: https://invdos.net/
For the paper: https://invdos.net/paper/CVE-2018-17145.pdf
- Record
GHSA-hx3r-jv9q-85jw- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
bcoinnpm |
before 1.0.2 | 1.0.2 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2018-17145 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Bitcoin Core, published September 10, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 4.76%, the 91st percentile. Fixed in bcoin 1.0.2.
References
github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.16.2/doc/release-notes.md
en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Common_Vulnerabilities_and_Exposures
invdos.net/paper/CVE-2018-17145.pdf
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-17145