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Moderate 62 Bitcoin

bound the bitcoin core rpc connect and read timeouts, exempting the methods that rescan synchronously

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Craig Raw

50/100 · Thin
bound the bitcoin core rpc connect and read timeouts, exempting the methods that rescan synchronously
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component! No meaningful explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit fixes a bug where Sparrow Wallet's connection to a Bitcoin Core node could hang forever if the node accepted the connection but never replied. The patch adds sensible time limits for making and reading connections, while carefully allowing very long waits only for two specific Bitcoin Core operations that legitimately take hours. Without the fix, a user connecting to a slow, stuck, or maliciously unresponsive node could have their wallet interface freeze indefinitely.

Recommended action

Review and merge the patch. Ensure the read timeout floor remains at or above the Electrum client timeout as the comment states. Consider whether 300s is appropriate for all non-rescan RPCs and monitor for any reports of legitimate calls being cut off. No immediate incident response is indicated beyond applying the fix.

Security signals we found

01

Denial-of-service via unresponsive Bitcoin Core RPC: a stuck or malicious node could hang the calling thread forever

02

Missing network timeouts on HttpURLConnection defaults (0 = infinite)

03

Tor/onion connections require longer connect timeout due to circuit setup

04

Synchronous rescan RPCs (importdescriptors, loadwallet) legitimately exceed normal read timeout and are exempted

05

Regression test added to prevent reintroduction of infinite hang

Risk score

Why this scored 62/100

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

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