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Moderate 64 Cryptographic libraries

Merge pull request #11033

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by tobtoht

58/100 · Thin
Merge pull request #11033

8a393ed rpc: hide sensitive txs from restricted block templates (selsta)

ACKs: jpk68, SChernykh
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Provides an explanatory body✓ Links an issue, advisory, or supporting reference
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This change fixes a privacy leak in Monero's restricted RPC mode. When a node operator enabled restricted RPC (used for public RPC endpoints), the get_block_template RPC call could still include sensitive transactions—specifically Dandelion++ stem transactions that are not yet meant to be publicly broadcast. A remote user could request a block template from a restricted RPC node and learn about transactions that ordinary network participants should not yet see, weakening transaction privacy. The patch adds an include_sensitive flag that defaults to true for normal callers but is set to false when the request comes through a restricted RPC context, so those transactions are excluded from the returned template.

Recommended action

Deploy this patch to any node exposing a restricted RPC endpoint, especially public RPC nodes and pool-operated nodes, to prevent remote callers from learning about pre-broadcast stem transactions. No configuration change is required; the fix is automatic once the code is updated. Node operators should also review whether other RPC endpoints expose mempool metadata that could similarly reveal stem transactions.

Security signals we found

01

Privacy leak in restricted RPC: sensitive unbroadcast/stem transactions exposed via get_block_template

02

New include_sensitive flag defaults to true but forced false for restricted RPC contexts

03

Block template cache keyed on include_sensitive to avoid cross-context cache reuse

04

Changes only tx selection for template generation, not mempool storage or relay behavior

Risk score

Why this scored 64/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 18/30
Exploitability 12/25
Stealth signal 10/15
Affected reach 12/15
Confidence 8/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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