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Why a bug that could have threatened XRP's 100 billion supply cap stayed hidden for years
coindesk.comarticle

Why a bug that could have threatened XRP's 100 billion supply cap stayed hidden for years

CoinDesk reports on an 11-year-old integer-overflow bug in the XRP Ledger's DEX code. Hundreds of crafted offers could make the computed buyer cost wrap to near zero while sellers were credited in full, which would have minted billions of XRP beyond the 100 billion cap. The post-transaction no-new-XRP invariant check used the same miscounted total, and the per-account receive limit was sidestepped by spreading funds across hundreds of accounts. Researcher Cayden Liao and Veria AI reported it on Sept. 22, RippleX patched it with no evidence of exploitation, and the XRP Ledger Foundation plans AI adversarial testing, formal verification and a stronger bug bounty.

TL;DR Decade-old XRPL integer overflow could have minted XRP past the supply cap; found by an AI-assisted researcher, patched with no exploitation.
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Organisations named here

  • RippleX
  • XRP Ledger Foundation

Technologies named here

  • Post-transaction invariant check on XRP total
  • XRP
  • Per-account XRP receive limit
  • XRPL built-in decentralized exchange
  • AI adversarial testing
  • Formal verification
  • Bug bounty program
  • XRP Ledger
  • Veria AI

Techniques named here

  • Integer Overflow
  • Cashing out

Also named here

  • Cayden Liao

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