Disconnect outbound peers relaying invalid headers

Author: sdaftuar

src/net_processing.cpp

@@ -1205,7 +1205,7 @@ inline void static SendBlockTransactions(const CBlock& block, const BlockTransac
     connman->PushMessage(pfrom, msgMaker.Make(nSendFlags, NetMsgType::BLOCKTXN, resp));
 }
 
-bool static ProcessHeadersMessage(CNode *pfrom, CConnman *connman, const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& headers, const CChainParams& chainparams)
+bool static ProcessHeadersMessage(CNode *pfrom, CConnman *connman, const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& headers, const CChainParams& chainparams, bool punish_duplicate_invalid)
 {
     const CNetMsgMaker msgMaker(pfrom->GetSendVersion());
     size_t nCount = headers.size();
@@ -1258,13 +1258,48 @@ bool static ProcessHeadersMessage(CNode *pfrom, CConnman *connman, const std::ve
     }
 
     CValidationState state;
-    if (!ProcessNewBlockHeaders(headers, state, chainparams, &pindexLast)) {
+    CBlockHeader first_invalid_header;
+    if (!ProcessNewBlockHeaders(headers, state, chainparams, &pindexLast, &first_invalid_header)) {
         int nDoS;
         if (state.IsInvalid(nDoS)) {
             if (nDoS > 0) {
                 LOCK(cs_main);
                 Misbehaving(pfrom->GetId(), nDoS);
             }
+            if (punish_duplicate_invalid && mapBlockIndex.find(first_invalid_header.GetHash()) != mapBlockIndex.end()) {
+                // Goal: don't allow outbound peers to use up our outbound
+                // connection slots if they are on incompatible chains.
+                //
+                // We ask the caller to set punish_invalid appropriately based
+                // on the peer and the method of header delivery (compact
+                // blocks are allowed to be invalid in some circumstances,
+                // under BIP 152).
+                // Here, we try to detect the narrow situation that we have a
+                // valid block header (ie it was valid at the time the header
+                // was received, and hence stored in mapBlockIndex) but know the
+                // block is invalid, and that a peer has announced that same
+                // block as being on its active chain.
+                // Disconnect the peer in such a situation.
+                //
+                // Note: if the header that is invalid was not accepted to our
+                // mapBlockIndex at all, that may also be grounds for
+                // disconnecting the peer, as the chain they are on is likely
+                // to be incompatible. However, there is a circumstance where
+                // that does not hold: if the header's timestamp is more than
+                // 2 hours ahead of our current time. In that case, the header
+                // may become valid in the future, and we don't want to
+                // disconnect a peer merely for serving us one too-far-ahead
+                // block header, to prevent an attacker from splitting the
+                // network by mining a block right at the 2 hour boundary.
+                //
+                // TODO: update the DoS logic (or, rather, rewrite the
+                // DoS-interface between validation and net_processing) so that
+                // the interface is cleaner, and so that we disconnect on all the
+                // reasons that a peer's headers chain is incompatible
+                // with ours (eg block->nVersion softforks, MTP violations,
+                // etc), and not just the duplicate-invalid case.
+                pfrom->fDisconnect = true;
+            }
             return error("invalid header received");
         }
     }
@@ -2219,7 +2254,6 @@ bool static ProcessMessage(CNode* pfrom, const std::string& strCommand, CDataStr
         // If we end up treating this as a plain headers message, call that as well
         // without cs_main.
         bool fRevertToHeaderProcessing = false;
-        CDataStream vHeadersMsg(SER_NETWORK, PROTOCOL_VERSION);
 
         // Keep a CBlock for "optimistic" compactblock reconstructions (see
         // below)
@@ -2336,10 +2370,6 @@ bool static ProcessMessage(CNode* pfrom, const std::string& strCommand, CDataStr
                 return true;
             } else {
                 // If this was an announce-cmpctblock, we want the same treatment as a header message
-                // Dirty hack to process as if it were just a headers message (TODO: move message handling into their own functions)
-                std::vector<CBlock> headers;
-                headers.push_back(cmpctblock.header);
-                vHeadersMsg << headers;
                 fRevertToHeaderProcessing = true;
             }
         }
@@ -2348,8 +2378,14 @@ bool static ProcessMessage(CNode* pfrom, const std::string& strCommand, CDataStr
         if (fProcessBLOCKTXN)
             return ProcessMessage(pfrom, NetMsgType::BLOCKTXN, blockTxnMsg, nTimeReceived, chainparams, connman, interruptMsgProc);
 
-        if (fRevertToHeaderProcessing)
-            return ProcessMessage(pfrom, NetMsgType::HEADERS, vHeadersMsg, nTimeReceived, chainparams, connman, interruptMsgProc);
+        if (fRevertToHeaderProcessing) {
+            // Headers received from HB compact block peers are permitted to be
+            // relayed before full validation (see BIP 152), so we don't want to disconnect
+            // the peer if the header turns out to be for an invalid block.
+            // Note that if a peer tries to build on an invalid chain, that
+            // will be detected and the peer will be banned.
+            return ProcessHeadersMessage(pfrom, connman, {cmpctblock.header}, chainparams, /*punish_duplicate_invalid=*/false);
+        }
 
         if (fBlockReconstructed) {
             // If we got here, we were able to optimistically reconstruct a
@@ -2480,7 +2516,12 @@ bool static ProcessMessage(CNode* pfrom, const std::string& strCommand, CDataStr
             ReadCompactSize(vRecv); // ignore tx count; assume it is 0.
         }
 
-        return ProcessHeadersMessage(pfrom, connman, headers, chainparams);
+        // Headers received via a HEADERS message should be valid, and reflect
+        // the chain the peer is on. If we receive a known-invalid header,
+        // disconnect the peer if it is using one of our outbound connection
+        // slots.
+        bool should_punish = !pfrom->fInbound && !pfrom->m_manual_connection;
+        return ProcessHeadersMessage(pfrom, connman, headers, chainparams, should_punish);
     }
 
     else if (strCommand == NetMsgType::BLOCK && !fImporting && !fReindex) // Ignore blocks received while importing

src/validation.cpp

@@ -3079,13 +3079,15 @@ static bool AcceptBlockHeader(const CBlockHeader& block, CValidationState& state
 }
 
 // Exposed wrapper for AcceptBlockHeader
-bool ProcessNewBlockHeaders(const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& headers, CValidationState& state, const CChainParams& chainparams, const CBlockIndex** ppindex)
+bool ProcessNewBlockHeaders(const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& headers, CValidationState& state, const CChainParams& chainparams, const CBlockIndex** ppindex, CBlockHeader *first_invalid)
 {
+    if (first_invalid != nullptr) first_invalid->SetNull();
     {
         LOCK(cs_main);
         for (const CBlockHeader& header : headers) {
             CBlockIndex *pindex = nullptr; // Use a temp pindex instead of ppindex to avoid a const_cast
             if (!AcceptBlockHeader(header, state, chainparams, &pindex)) {
+                if (first_invalid) *first_invalid = header;
                 return false;
             }
             if (ppindex) {

src/validation.h

@@ -247,8 +247,9 @@ bool ProcessNewBlock(const CChainParams& chainparams, const std::shared_ptr<cons
  * @param[out] state This may be set to an Error state if any error occurred processing them
  * @param[in]  chainparams The params for the chain we want to connect to
  * @param[out] ppindex If set, the pointer will be set to point to the last new block index object for the given headers
+ * @param[out] first_invalid First header that fails validation, if one exists
  */
-bool ProcessNewBlockHeaders(const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& block, CValidationState& state, const CChainParams& chainparams, const CBlockIndex** ppindex=nullptr);
+bool ProcessNewBlockHeaders(const std::vector<CBlockHeader>& block, CValidationState& state, const CChainParams& chainparams, const CBlockIndex** ppindex=nullptr, CBlockHeader *first_invalid=nullptr);
 
 /** Check whether enough disk space is available for an incoming block */
 bool CheckDiskSpace(uint64_t nAdditionalBytes = 0);