XRP Ledger Fixes Flaw That Could Have Created 18.45 Trillion XRP

The XRP Ledger fixed a critical payment-engine flaw that could have created and spent about 18.45 trillion XRP in one transaction, far exceeding the network’s 100 billion XRP genesis supply.

The vulnerability affected xrpld version 3.4.0 and earlier and resulted from an integer overflow. A specially constructed transaction using hundreds of unusually priced offers could have credited sellers with XRP while charging the buyer only a small wrapped-around amount.

The ledger’s safeguard against unauthorized XRP creation used similar arithmetic and could also have missed the imbalance. RippleX reproduced the exploit on an isolated server and successfully spent the resulting XRP in a second payment.

The fix arrived in xrpld 3.4.1 on Sept. 25, adding overflow checks and expanding the counter used in the supply-safety calculation. More than 80% of validators on the default UNL were running version 3.4.1 or newer on Sept. 25.

No evidence indicates that the flaw was exploited on a public network, making the 18.45 trillion XRP figure a controlled proof-of-concept rather than coins that entered circulation. The vulnerability likely existed since the payment engine was introduced in 2015.

Veria Labs discovered the issue and received the maximum $250,000 bug bounty on Oct. 8. The XRP Ledger disclosure was published Oct. 9.