# CVE-2012-2459: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in Bitcoin clients by sending malicious network behavior, disrupting block processing.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Aug 2012
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mq4w-g4j3-x676

## What is CVE-2012-2459?

CVE-2012-2459 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Bitcoin Bitcoin Core, published on 6 Aug 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Unspecified vulnerability in bitcoind and Bitcoin-Qt before 0.4.6, 0.5.x before 0.5.5, 0.6.0.x before 0.6.0.7, and 0.6.x before 0.6.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (block-processing outage and incorrect block count) via unknown behavior on a Bitcoin network.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-2459?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Bitcoin Bitcoin Core.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-2459?

No fix has been published for CVE-2012-2459 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2012-2459 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-2459 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Browser-based Merkle tree demo — build a tree, generate inclusion proofs, recompute the root hash by hash, and replay the RFC 6962 second-preimage and CVE-2012-2459 attacks. Real SHA-256. No backend. (github_poc): https://github.com/systemslibrarian/crypto-lab-merkle-proofs
- Arvore de Merkle do zero em C# e .NET 8: provas de pertencimento, esquemas Bitcoin e RFC 6962, e a CVE-2012-2459 demonstrada (github_poc): https://github.com/condeDeveloper/arvore-merkle
- 针对比特币 Merkle 根算法（含 CVE-2012-2459 变异检测机制）设计并实施自动化测试方案，覆盖功能正确性、边界场景与安全回归。 (github_poc): https://github.com/GJ504b123/merkle-lab

## Other vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Bitcoin Core

- [CVE-2025-46597](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-46597/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-54604](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54604/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-54605](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54605/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-25220](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-25220/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2024-52912](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-52912/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-2459 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-2459 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Bitcoin Bitcoin Core, published on 6 Aug 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-2459 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Bitcoin Bitcoin Core. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2459/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2459/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-2459
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-2459
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-2459

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2459/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.