CVE-2018-19166
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 · uneditedpeercoin through 0.6.4 (a chain-based proof-of-stake cryptocurrency) allows a remote denial of service, exploitable by an attacker who acquires even a small amount of stake/coins in the system. The attacker sends invalid headers/blocks, which are stored on the victim's disk.
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 · moderate confidencePeercoin through version 0.6.4 suffers from a denial of service vulnerability where the node accepts and stores invalid headers/blocks from attackers who have acquired even minimal stake in the network. The core issue is insufficient validation of incoming blocks before disk storage, allowing malicious actors to fill victim disk space or cause processing overhead with invalid proof-of-stake blocks.
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<= 0.6.4CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed Peercoin versionLaunch the Peercoin client and check the version number displayed in the GUI footer or menu, or run 'peercoind -version' from the command line if the daemon is installedAffected if The version displayed is 0.6.4 or any lower version number
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Confirm network listener is activeCheck if the Peercoin daemon is running and listening for network connections. On Linux, run 'netstat -anp | grep peercoin' or 'ss -tlnp | grep 9333' (the default Peercoin port). On Windows, check via 'netstat -an' for port 9333Affected if The node is actively listening on network ports, making it reachable for incoming block data
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Inspect block database for invalid entriesPeercoin stores blockchain data in the data directory. Look for the block database files (typically in the 'blocks' or 'chainstate' folder within the data directory). Use the client's debugging tools if available, or examine file timestamps to identify recently stored blocksAffected if The node has accepted and stored blocks that cannot be validated as valid proof-of-stake entries despite the network having minimal stake requirements
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Monitor disk usage for unusual growthCheck the total size of the Peercoin data directory. Compare current size against a known baseline. Use 'du -sh ~/.peercoin' on Linux or check folder properties on WindowsAffected if The data directory shows unexpected disk usage growth that cannot be explained by normal blockchain synchronization
A user is affected if their Peercoin installation is version 0.6.4 or lower and the node is connected to the network, as this version lacks proper validation of incoming proof-of-stake blocks before disk storage.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade Peercoin beyond version 0.6.4 to obtain patched block/header validation logic. Until then, network segmentation and monitoring for abnormal block acceptance can help mitigate exposure.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-19166 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-19166 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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
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