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Security: NiftyRaven/x-coin

Security

docs/SECURITY.md

X Coin release-day security

Nifty Raven (@NFTRVN on X)

Ship is 1.0.12. Nothing here is “hacker proof.” This is a small fair-launch UTXO + lottery mesh whose baked seed is lottery law on main/test. Honest operators plus the checks below make cheap sabotage fail. A stolen attestor key, an eclipsed lone node, or a clique of real X Verified accounts can still hurt you.

Downloads: Light 1.0.14 (v1.0.14) or Heavy 1.0.15 (v1.0.15). The lottery-law chapter below is what 1.0.12 closed. There are no public DNS seeds on purpose.

What 1.0.12 closed

The issue that was actually shipping: a modified wallet could assert verified=true, enter the hat, and (on older builds) emit a block.

On 1.0.12 main/test:

Attack Status
User app emits a height ≥ 1 block Dead. Only the baked seed’s XSD1 is valid.
Flip verified=true and join the hat Dead. Seed looks the handle up on X. No live blue check → no XVA1 stamp → not in the draw.
Invent @nobody in XHB1 Dead. Every id in XHB1 must carry a seed XVA1 stamp peers check against the baked pubkey.
Seed takes the prize Dead. The printer is not in the hat.
Download xattestor.key over P2P :38443 Dead. P2P is blocks and xhb. RPC :38442 is localhost.

That is counterfeit tickets and homemade mint. It is not personhood and it is not a trustless census of every live blue-check node on Earth.

What consensus actually checks

Peers verify consistency of the paper the seed published:

  1. XSD1 is signed by the baked attestor pubkey.
  2. Every id in XHB1 has a matching XVA1 stamp for a handle the seed signed.
  3. Coinbase pays that draw and does not underpay the subsidy.

Peers do not call X. They do not prove “this list is every live X Verified node.” Eligibility is the seed’s GET /2/users/by/username lookup. Consensus checks the seal, not attendance in the parking lot. That completeness gap is still there. Say that plainly.

Threat model (release sabotage)

Goal What we guarantee What we do not
Impersonate a typed @handle on this node RequireHandle / RequireSession on root claim, linkxaccount, registeractivenode. Typed -xaccount= is ignored. Send/receive are a normal wallet. Steal xsession.key + xsession.json from this datadir → that attacker is the session on this node.
Publish login / OAuth secrets Access tokens never written. Session files 0600. P2P xhb sends @handle only (no X user id, no token). A screenshot of RPC getxsession, or a copied datadir.
Spend someone else’s wallet Spend only keys in this wallet.dat. Copy wallet.dat (or the 12 words) → they have the keys.
Steal lottery rewards with a spoofed xhb Gossip xhb must be compact-signed by the payout key. A live handle cannot be rebound. Seed must still stamp after a live X lookup. First-seen race after restart if the handle is not pinned.
Invent lottery eligibility with a custom wallet Seed X lookup + XVA1 + XSD1. A modified binary cannot skip the stamp or mint. A bot can still wear a real verified handle (name check, not personhood).
Replay Ravencoin blocks / addresses Different genesis, magic XFER / XFTN / XFRT, ports, address versions (X…). A malicious binary that changes those constants is a different coin.
Unauthenticated RPC spend Cookie or rpcuser/rpcpassword. No auth header → 401. Bind RPC on a public interface and leak the cookie.
Feed a lone node a fake chain Height ≥ 1 main/test blocks without valid XHB1+XVA1+XSD1 are rejected. Checkpoints are empty. An eclipsed node follows the heaviest valid seed-signed chain its peers feed it.

What is tamper-resistant

  • Ledger rules: height ≥ 1 coinbase must commit XHB1, carry XVA1 and XSD1 on main/test, pay the draw, and not underpay the subsidy. Height 0 genesis coinbase is unspendable. There is no PoW grind; CheckProofOfWork is a no-op. Lottery pools were removed.
  • Identity on this node: root claim requires a session HMAC. Send and receive do not. A typed handle cannot pass RequireHandle.
  • Lottery membership: unsigned / unverified gossip is dropped. The baked seed checks X and stamps (XVA1). User wallets Sign in with X. The seed has no session and is not in the hat. A custom app that only flips verified=true is not eligible.
  • Network isolation from Ravencoin: magic, genesis, ports, versions.
  • RPC: cookie or password. sendrawtransaction is a normal send.
  • What's new feed: GUI may GET GitHub Releases. No wallet or token is sent. UPDATES.md.

What an attacker can still do

  1. Omit / incomplete hopper. The seed publishes whoever it stamped this minute. A live peer the seed did not hear (or whose lookup failed) is absent from XHB1. Honest peers still accept the block.
  2. X API 401 / 429. A bad or rate-limited bearer means no new stamps. After a seed restart the in-memory stamp table is empty. An empty hat that minute pays nobody. Keep the portal bearer string as copied (%2B / %3D left encoded). The seed HTTP client must dechunk X’s body (1.0.12 094f159); raw 74\\r\\n{ is not JSON.
  3. Several real blue checks. One human with many verified accounts and many online boxes holds many legal tickets.
  4. Eclipse. Attacker peers can stall you. They cannot make 1.0.12 accept a block the seed did not sign. Connect to addnode=172.191.195.221:38443.
  5. Seed offline. Only the baked seed produces. If that process is down, liveness stops. History already written stays. Do not give users a “I am a backup seed” checkbox.
  6. Stolen xattestor.key. That file is the printer. P2P cannot fetch it. A copied datadir / PEM / screenshot can.
  7. 1.0.11 leftovers. Old wallets share genesis and can emit a side fork. 1.0.12 rejects those blocks. Do not run 1.0.11.
  8. Datadir theft. wallet.dat / 12 words = coins. Session files = identity on that node.
  9. Host / binary / open 38442. Out of consensus scope.

Do not claim the chain is PoW-equivalent or unhackable.

Operator checklist (launch night)

Stay private. Do not add public DNS seeds.

  1. One baked seed (172.191.195.221). Open TCP 38443 only. No Sign-in on the seed. Attestor key + X app bearer + listen.

    xcoind -listen=1 -port=38443 -server \
  -bind=0.0.0.0:38443 \
  -maxconnections=32 \
  -xlookupbearer="$XCOIN_X_BEARER" \
  -xattestorkey=/home/azureuser/.xcoin/xattestor.key

    Confirm getlotteryinfo: baked_seed=true, x_lookup=true, local_eligible=false. stamped_handles is the hat. Never put the bearer or the key in the user zip. Do not expose 38442.

  2. Everyone else runs the 1.0.12 zip. Packaged xcoin.conf already has addnode=172.191.195.221:38443.

  3. Sign in with X on each user datadir. Leave the GUI open through the first payday (File → Exit drops the session).

  4. After height 1, confirm the same tip as the seed (getblockchaininfo).

  5. Seed ~/.xcoin holds xattestor.key and the bearer line. Mode 600. Treat it like the printer.

Related

There aren't any published security advisories