CVE-2022-24916 in Ethereum Optimism
Summary
by MITRE • 02/10/2022
Optimism before @eth-optimism/[email protected] allows economic griefing because a balance is duplicated upon contract self-destruction.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/16/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-24916 resides within the optimism framework's smart contract implementation, specifically affecting the @eth-optimism package version 0.5.12. This flaw represents a critical economic security issue that exploits the contract self-destruction mechanism to create duplicate balance states, fundamentally undermining the integrity of the optimistic rollup system's economic model. The vulnerability manifests when a contract undergoes self-destruction while maintaining duplicate balance entries, creating opportunities for malicious actors to manipulate economic outcomes and potentially drain resources from the system.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from improper handling of balance accounting during contract self-destruction operations. When a contract is destroyed, the system should properly清算 all associated balances and ensure no duplicate entries persist in the state. However, the implementation fails to correctly manage the balance duplication process, allowing for scenarios where funds can be effectively duplicated or improperly allocated. This flaw directly relates to CWE-1288, which addresses improper handling of state transitions in smart contracts, and specifically targets the contract lifecycle management aspects of blockchain systems. The vulnerability occurs at the intersection of Ethereum's EVM state management and optimism's layer 2 optimization mechanisms, creating a gap in the security model that can be exploited through carefully crafted transaction sequences.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple financial loss to encompass fundamental trust degradation within the optimism ecosystem. An attacker can leverage this flaw to perform economic griefing attacks where they manipulate balance states to create artificial wealth or disrupt legitimate transactions. The duplicated balance entries can be used to execute multiple valid transactions that should not be possible under normal circumstances, effectively creating a form of economic manipulation that undermines the optimistic rollup's core principle of trustless execution. This vulnerability can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves data manipulation through economic means, and represents a significant threat to the economic security model of the optimism network.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-24916 require immediate patching of the affected @eth-optimism package to ensure proper balance accounting during contract destruction events. The fix must implement comprehensive state validation checks that prevent duplicate balance entries from persisting after contract self-destruction operations. Security teams should conduct thorough audits of all smart contracts that interact with the optimism framework to identify potential similar vulnerabilities in the broader codebase. Additionally, implementing proper state transition monitoring and balance validation mechanisms can help detect and prevent such exploits in real-time. The solution must address the underlying architectural issue in how contract destruction events are handled within the optimism layer 2 system, ensuring that all balance accounting operations maintain consistency and integrity throughout the entire contract lifecycle. Organizations using optimism infrastructure should also consider implementing additional transaction validation layers and regular state consistency checks to prevent exploitation of similar vulnerabilities.