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Bitcoin CoreApplication · Bitcoin

CVE-2019-15947

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-09-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
In Bitcoin Core 0.18.0, bitcoin-qt stores wallet.dat data unencrypted in memory. Upon a crash, it may dump a core file. If a user were to mishandle a core file, an attacker can reconstruct the user's wallet.dat file, including their private keys, via a grep "6231 0500" command.

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

Bitcoin Core 0.18.0 stores wallet.dat data unencrypted in memory. When the application crashes and generates a core dump file, this sensitive data including private keys can be extracted by searching for the magic bytes '6231 0500' if the core file is mishandled.

MitigationUpgrade Bitcoin Core to a patched version and ensure core dumps are disabled or properly sanitized. Consider using encrypted wallets as an additional safeguard.

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 CoreApplication
Affected:= 0.18.0

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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. Verify Bitcoin Core version
    Run 'bitcoin-cli getinfo' or 'bitcoind -version' to check the installed version number
    Affected if Version equals 0.18.0 exactly
  2. Check if core dumps are enabled
    Run 'ulimit -c' on Linux. If it returns a number greater than 0 or 'unlimited', core dumps are enabled. On macOS, check 'launchctl limit core'
    Affected if Core dumps are enabled (ulimit -c shows a non-zero value)
  3. Search for core dump files
    Look for core dump files in common locations: 'ls -la /core*', 'ls -la /var/crash/', 'ls -la ~/core*', or check the current working directory where bitcoind was run
    Affected if Any core dump files exist on the system from Bitcoin Core crashes
  4. Verify wallet encryption status
    Run 'bitcoin-cli getwalletinfo' and check if the 'encryptionstatus' field shows 'encrypted'
    Affected if Wallet encryption is not enabled (status shows 'unlocked' or 'unencrypted')

User is affected if running Bitcoin Core 0.18.0 with core dumps enabled and using an unencrypted wallet, especially if core dump files from crashes exist on the system.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Bitcoin Core to a patched version and ensure core dumps are disabled or properly sanitized. Consider using encrypted wallets as an additional safeguard.

Fix this in Bitcoin Core Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,980
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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-2019-15947 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