Ethereum Delays Glamsterdam Hoodi Test Amid Gas-Security Review

Ethereum developers have postponed Glamsterdam’s Hoodi testnet deployment after ChainSecurity identified 13 contract examples that may be affected by proposed gas changes, extending uncertainty around a test once scheduled for Oct. 26.

ChainSecurity said Friday it had identified 13 real-world examples of smart contracts that may be affected by the changes. The firm is coordinating responsible disclosure with affected projects, but has not named those projects or described the examples. It urged developers to review their contracts promptly.

The findings concern EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, proposals included in Glamsterdam. Under the proposed rules, gas could return to a contract after an operation fails, allowing the contract to keep running in situations where it previously would have stopped. ChainSecurity said the change may affect security checks that rely on the amount of gas remaining during a transaction.

In an insufficient-gas griefing attack, a caller deliberately provides too little gas for a legitimate contract operation. ChainSecurity warned that a vulnerable contract could permanently record the failed operation. For example, it might remove a user’s claim or disable a retry, preventing the user from completing an otherwise valid action. The firm said not all gas-based safeguards would become unreliable, but developers need to check whether their protections still work under the proposed rules.

The concern follows earlier warnings about Glamsterdam’s gas model. The Ethereum Foundation warned that it could disrupt wallets, indexers and gas estimators that depend on fixed assumptions. In an Oct. 21 GitHub comment, pseudonymous security researcher pcaversaccio also called for developers to reassess the upgrade’s risks.

The postponed Hoodi test was set to follow Glamsterdam’s Oct. 6 activation on the Sepolia testnet. The delay also removed the planned 200 million-gas limit increase for Hoodi. Developers have not set a replacement date for the Hoodi test. They had considered an early-December mainnet schedule, with timing to be finalized after successful Hoodi testing.