Ethereum Pauses Hoodi Test After Gas-Rule Risk Emerges

Ethereum developers have put a planned step toward the Glamsterdam upgrade on hold after security researchers identified a risk involving existing smart contracts. The researchers found that proposed changes to gas rules could allow contracts to permanently record operations that had failed.

The immediate action was the cancellation of Monday’s planned activation on the Hoodi test network. Hoodi is used to test Ethereum changes before they are considered for broader deployment, making the halted activation an early checkpoint for reviewing the issue.

Why the test was stopped

Gas rules govern how Ethereum transactions and smart-contract operations consume network resources. Changes in those rules can affect how contracts execute, including how they handle operations that do not complete successfully.

In this case, researchers flagged a scenario in which a failed operation could still be recorded permanently by an existing contract. That behavior could create a compatibility problem for contracts that were written under earlier assumptions about execution and failure.

The concern is focused on the interaction between new network rules and contracts already deployed on Ethereum. Canceling the Hoodi activation gives developers time to examine that interaction before continuing the test process.

A testnet checkpoint for Glamsterdam

The incident illustrates why upgrade testing takes place on networks such as Hoodi before changes move further through Ethereum’s development process. Testnet activations allow researchers and developers to observe how proposed rules behave with smart-contract code and to identify problems that may not be visible from the upgrade design alone.

For Ethereum users and developers, the issue matters because existing contracts can continue operating long after they are deployed. A change that affects the way failed operations are recorded could therefore have implications beyond newly written applications.

The canceled activation does not itself establish when testing will resume. It shows instead that the proposed gas-rule changes require additional security review before the Glamsterdam testing process can proceed.

Source: Coindesk