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Low 28 Bitcoin

clusterlin: randomize equal-feerate parts of linearization (privacy)

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Pieter Wuille

78/100 · Adequate
clusterlin: randomize equal-feerate parts of linearization (privacy)

This places equal-feerate chunks (with no dependencies between them) in random
order in the linearization output, hiding information about DepGraph insertion
order from the output. Likewise, it randomizes the order of transactions within
chunks for the same reason.
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides detailed explanatory context✓ Names security-relevant behavior explicitly
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit changes how Bitcoin Core orders transactions when grouping them into blocks or processing clusters. Previously, when several transaction groups had the same fee rate and no dependencies, the order was predictable based on internal data structures. Now the order is randomized. The stated goal is to hide information about the order in which transactions were inserted into the system, improving privacy by making it harder for observers to infer internal state from the final output.

Recommended action

Treat as a privacy-improvement maintenance patch. No urgent security action required. Reviewers may want to confirm that the random number generator used (m_rng) is cryptographically suitable for the privacy goal, and that PostLinearize's determinism properties are sufficient to avoid consensus-relevant non-determinism. Standard regression testing for transaction ordering and block template generation is appropriate.

Security signals we found

01

Privacy hardening: removes deterministic insertion-order leakage from linearization output

02

Randomization added to equal-feerate chunk selection and intra-chunk transaction ordering

03

PostLinearize retained to reduce non-determinism and preserve chunk connectivity invariants

04

No memory safety, input validation, or cryptographic changes observed

Risk score

Why this scored 28/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 5/30
Exploitability 2/25
Stealth signal 6/15
Affected reach 4/15
Confidence 7/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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