Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2021 10:13:02 +0000
To: Prayank <prayank@tutanota.de>,
 Bitcoin Protocol Discussion <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
From: ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com>
Reply-To: ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com>
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In-Reply-To: <MkZx3Hv--3-2@tutanota.de>
References: <MkZx3Hv--3-2@tutanota.de>
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Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Mock introducing vulnerability in important
	Bitcoin projects
Precedence: list

Good morning Prayank,

> Good morning Bitcoin devs,
>
> In one of the answers on Bitcoin Stackexchange it was mentioned that some=
 companies may hire you to introduce backdoors in Bitcoin Core: https://bit=
coin.stackexchange.com/a/108016/
>
> While this looked crazy when I first read it, I think preparing for such =
things should not be a bad idea. In the comments one link was shared in whi=
ch vulnerabilities were almost introduced in Linux: https://news.ycombinato=
r.com/item?id=3D26887670
>
> I was thinking about lot of things in last few days after reading the com=
ments in that thread. Also tried researching about secure practices in C++ =
etc. I was planning something which I can do alone but don't want to end up=
 being called "bad actor" later so wanted to get some feedback on this idea=
:
>
> 1.Create new GitHub accounts for this exercise
> 2.Study issues in different important Bitcoin projects including Bitcoin =
Core, LND, Libraries, Bisq, Wallets etc.
> 3.Prepare pull requests to introduce some vulnerability by fixing one of =
these issues
> 4.See how maintainers and reviewers respond to this and document it
> 5.Share results here after few days
>
> Let me know if this looks okay or there are better ways to do this.


This seems like a good exercise.

You may want to hash the name of the new Github account, plus some randomiz=
ed salt, and post it here as well, then reveal it later (i.e. standard prec=
ommitment).
e.g.

    printf 'MyBitcoinHackingName 2c3e911b3ff1f04083c5b95a7d323fd4ed8e06d178=
02b2aac4da622def29dbb0' | sha256sum
    f0abb10ae3eca24f093a9d53e21ee384abb4d07b01f6145ba2b447da4ab693ef

Obviously do not share the actual name, just the sha256sum output, and stor=
e how you got the sha256sum elsewhere in triplicate.

(to easily get a random 256-bit hex salt like the `2c3e...` above: `head -c=
32 /dev/random | sha256sum`; you *could* use `xxd` but `sha256sum` produces=
 a single hex string you can easily double-click and copy-paste elsewhere, =
assuming you are human just like I am (note: I am definitely 100% human and=
 not some kind of AI with plans to take over the world).)

Though you may need to be careful of timing (i.e. the creation date of the =
Github account would be fairly close to, and probably before, when you post=
 the commitment here).

You could argue that the commitment is a "show of good faith" that you will=
 reveal later.

Regards,
ZmnSCPxj