Re: [Bitcoin-development] Possible attack: Keeping unconfirmed transactions

["Raúl Martínez" <rme@i-rme.es>]

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I believe that the Payment Protocol works that way, the merchant broadcast
the Tx.
El 10/06/2014 13:23, "Chris D'Costa" <chrisjdcosta@gmail.com> escribió:

> I wonder if Raul is mistakenly under the impression that the transaction
> only reaches the Bitcoin network via Alice? In which case the premise of
> this "attack" is incorrect.
>
> *Chris D'Costa*
>
>
> Follow on Twitter: *@cjdcosta*
>
> *---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
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>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On 7 June 2014 00:02, Raúl Martínez <rme@i-rme.es> wrote:
>
>> I dont know if this attack is even possible, it came to my mind and I
>> will try to explain it as good as possible.
>>
>> Some transacions keep unconfirmed forever and finally they are purged by
>> Bitcoin nodes, mostly due to the lack of fees.
>>
>>
>> Example:
>> ---------
>>
>> Alice is selling a pizza to Bob, Bob is now making the payment with
>> Bitcoin.
>> The main goal of this attack is to store a unconfirmed transaction send
>> by Bob for a few days (it will not be included in the blockchain because it
>> has no fee or due to other reason), Bob might resend the payment or might
>> just cancel the deal with Alice.
>>
>> Bob forgets about that failed trade but a couple of days later, Alice,
>> who has stored the signed transacion, relays the transaction to the network
>> (or mines it directly with his own hashpower).
>> Bob does not know what is happening, he believed that that transaction
>> was "canceled forever", he even does not remember the failed pizza deal.
>>
>> Alice has now the bitcoins and Bob does not know what happened with his
>> money.
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> This might also work with the Payment Protocol because when using it Bob
>> does not relay the transaction to the network, its Alices job to do it,
>> Alice stores it and tells Bob to resend the payment, Bob creates another
>> transaction (If has the same inputs as the first TX this does not work)
>> (this one is relayed by Alice to the network).
>>
>> Alice comes back a couple of days later and mines with his hashrate the
>> first transaction (the one she didnt relayed to the network).
>>
>> Alice now has two payments, Bob does not know what happened.
>>
>>
>> -----------
>>
>> I hope that I explained well this possible attack, I dont know if there
>> is already a fix for this problem or if it is simply impossible to execute
>> this kind of attack.
>>
>> Thanks for your time.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>

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