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Bitcoin QtApplication · Bitcoin

CVE-2013-2272

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-03-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.4.8 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The penny-flooding protection mechanism in the CTxMemPool::accept method in bitcoind and Bitcoin-Qt before 0.4.9rc1, 0.5.x before 0.5.8rc1, 0.6.0 before 0.6.0.11rc1, 0.6.1 through 0.6.5 before 0.6.5rc1, and 0.7.x before 0.7.3rc1 allows remote attackers to determine associations between wallet addresses and IP addresses via a series of large Bitcoin transactions with insufficient fees.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The penny-flooding protection in CTxMemPool::accept had a flaw where remote attackers could correlate wallet addresses with IP addresses by broadcasting a series of large Bitcoin transactions with insufficient fees, exploiting timing and propagation behaviors in the mempool to perform traffic analysis.

MitigationUpgrade Bitcoin Core to version 0.4.9rc1, 0.5.8rc1, 0.6.0.11rc1, 0.6.5rc1, 0.7.3rc1 or later. Alternatively, run nodes behind Tor or use transaction relay policies that obscure origin IP addresses.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Bitcoin QtApplication
Affected:<= 0.4.8= 0.4= 0.5.0= 0.5.0.4= 0.5.1= 0.5.3.0= 0.5.7= 0.6.0.10= 0.6.3= 0.7.0= 0.7.1= 0.7.2
Bitcoin CoreApplication
Affected:all versions= 0.3.4= 0.3.5= 0.3.8= 0.3.10= 0.3.11= 0.3.12= 0.4.0= 0.4.1= 0.4.2= 0.4.3= 0.4.4
BitcoindApplication
Affected:<= 0.4.4= 0.5.7= 0.6.0.0= 0.6.0.10= 0.6.3= 0.6.4= 0.7.0= 0.7.1= 0.7.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Bitcoin software version
    Run 'bitcoind --version' or 'bitcoin-qt --version' from command line, or click Help > About in the Bitcoin Qt GUI to display the version number
    Affected if Version matches any of the affected versions listed: Bitcoin Qt <= 0.4.8, 0.4.x, 0.5.x series, 0.6.0.10, 0.6.3, 0.7.0-0.7.2; Bitcoin Core all versions or listed 0.3.x-0.4.x; Bitcoind <= 0.4.4, 0.5.7, 0.6.0.x, 0.6.3-0.6.4, 0.7.0-0.7.2
  2. Verify node is accepting incoming network connections
    Check the 'getnetworkinfo' RPC response for 'localaddresses' or inspect bitcoin.conf for 'listen=1' (default). Also check router/firewall port forwarding for Bitcoin port 8333 (or 8333 for testnet)
    Affected if Node accepts incoming connections from the public internet (listen=1 with open port 8333)
  3. Check for public peer connections
    Use 'getpeerinfo' RPC command and examine the 'addr' field for each peer. Look for connections originating from external IP addresses not on local network
    Affected if Node has peers with public IP addresses in their 'addr' fields, indicating direct internet connectivity rather than only Tor/I2P connections
  4. Confirm whether Tor network is in use
    Check bitcoin.conf for 'onion' or 'proxy' settings (e.g., 'proxy=127.0.0.1:9050'), or check if the node binds to localhost only (bind=127.0.0.1)
    Affected if Node does NOT use Tor proxy and is reachable via clear-net (no 'proxy' or 'onion' configuration pointing to a Tor daemon)

A node is affected if it runs an affected Bitcoin version AND accepts incoming peer connections from the public internet without Tor or equivalent anonymizing network, allowing remote attackers to perform traffic analysis that links wallet addresses to IP addresses.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 0.4.8
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Bitcoin Core to version 0.4.9rc1, 0.5.8rc1, 0.6.0.11rc1, 0.6.5rc1, 0.7.3rc1 or later. Alternatively, run nodes behind Tor or use transaction relay policies that obscure origin IP addresses.

Fix this in Bitcoin Qt Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-2272 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data