Optimism fixed the security vulnerabilities on its testnet just weeks after a warning from direct competitor Arbitrum.
Optimism patched testnet after warning from Arbitrum
Layer 2 Optimism (OP Mainnet) recently fixed two vulnerabilities on the testnet after receiving information about errors in the timer of the anti-cheat system on March 22, 2024.
Notably, the unit that discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Optimism is Offchain Labs - the organization behind layer-2 Arbitrum , a direct competitor of Optimism.
On March 22, our Offchain Labs team disclosed two serious vulnerabilities in the Optimism fraud proof system. Details: https://t.co/cIY4z48mV4
— Ed Felten (@EdFelten) April 26, 2024
As described by Offchain Labs, the two vulnerabilities allow a malicious party to force OP Stack 's fraud proof mechanism to accept a fake blockchain history, or prevent the system from accepting an accurate chain history. Applying fraud proof is an important step to help layer-2s have a specific authentication evidence framework to ensure data accuracy, instead of having to rely on the fidelity of network participants. like nowadays.
- Also Read: What are the Stages of Layer-2?
The problem stems from shortcomings in the way timers from the fraud proof system are handled.
Offchain Labs' post exemplifies the problem through a chess game, where each player has a certain amount of time called "credit time" to move his pieces. If a player does not move transfer within 7 days, they will be considered losers.
However, when many players participate in a game, time management becomes more complicated.
If we Chia into two teams and each team has its own amount of credit time, we must ensure that there are no “traitors” in the team who can take advantage of the “credit time” to harm the team mine.
Therefore, credit time management needs to be carefully designed to avoid bad guys taking advantage and disrupting the entire game. This is a major challenge in designing a fraud proof protocol
“The timer is one of the most delicate aspects and is often difficult to get a handle on,” Offchain Labs said .
Offchain Labs has also confirmed that Optimism has successfully implemented a fix update to its testnet.
OP Labs representative also thanked Offchain Labs for its contribution to the security of the network.
Just to be clear, our analysis wasn't part of any audit process, and we neither asked for nor received any bounty.
— Ed Felten (@EdFelten) April 26, 2024
Arbitrum and Optimism are the two earliest layer-2s and still maintain a leading position in the field of scaling the second layer on Ethereum, with TVL at the time of writing being 16.2 billion respectively. USD and 6.3 billion USD.
Statistics of the top layer-2s on Ethereum on the morning of April 27, 2024. Source: L2Beat
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