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Topic: [VXC] V.Cash (Was: [VNL] Vanillacoin), a quiet word of warning. - page 7. (Read 14244 times)

staff
Activity: 4284
Merit: 8808
Hah. Looks like poking here had some effect.

So... this code is substantially an older copy of Bitcoin Core (maybe copied from the ppcoin codebase? I see some fragments of that) with the attribution removed (in violation of the software license for Bitcoin core) and run through an ugly auto-formatter.


It also doesn't agree with the binary on the site (linux64 sha256sum b07f40515ee75b768424189942d44af8c68b816bfc3018da65f4af273a283183):

E.g. ECDSA verification in the binary on the site gives this disassembly:

Quote
000000000054bc00 <_ZN4coin3key6verifyERKNS_6sha256ERKSt6vectorIhSaIhEE>:
  54bc00:       48 89 5c 24 e8          mov    %rbx,-0x18(%rsp)
  54bc05:       48 89 6c 24 f0          mov    %rbp,-0x10(%rsp)
  54bc0a:       4c 89 64 24 f8          mov    %r12,-0x8(%rsp)
  54bc0f:       48 83 ec 18             sub    $0x18,%rsp
  54bc13:       48 8b 2a                mov    (%rdx),%rbp
  54bc16:       48 8b 5a 08             mov    0x8(%rdx),%rbx
  54bc1a:       4c 8b 27                mov    (%rdi),%r12
  54bc1d:       48 89 f7                mov    %rsi,%rdi
  54bc20:       e8 bb a1 03 00          callq  585de0 <_ZNK4coin6sha2566digestEv>
  54bc25:       48 89 e9                mov    %rbp,%rcx
  54bc28:       31 ff                   xor    %edi,%edi
  54bc2a:       ba 20 00 00 00          mov    $0x20,%edx
  54bc2f:       48 29 eb                sub    %rbp,%rbx
  54bc32:       4d 89 e1                mov    %r12,%r9
  54bc35:       48 89 c6                mov    %rax,%rsi
  54bc38:       41 89 d8                mov    %ebx,%r8d
  54bc3b:       e8 d0 59 1e 00          callq  731610
  54bc40:       83 f8 01                cmp    $0x1,%eax
  54bc43:       48 8b 1c 24             mov    (%rsp),%rbx
  54bc47:       48 8b 6c 24 08          mov    0x8(%rsp),%rbp
  54bc4c:       0f 94 c0                sete   %al
  54bc4f:       4c 8b 64 24 10          mov    0x10(%rsp),%r12
  54bc54:       48 83 c4 18             add    $0x18,%rsp
  54bc58:       c3                      retq  
  54bc59:       90                      nop
  54bc5a:       66 0f 1f 44 00 00       nopw   0x0(%rax,%rax,1)

compared to this source code:
Quote
bool key::verify(
    const sha256 & h, const std::vector & signature
    )
{
    bool ret = false;
    
    if (signature.size() > 0)
    {
        auto ptr_signature = &signature[0];
        
        ECDSA_SIG * ecdsa_sig = 0;
        
        /**
         * Make sure that the signature looks like a valid signature before
         * sending it to OpenSSL (like in the test cases).
         */
        if (
            (ecdsa_sig = d2i_ECDSA_SIG(
            0, &ptr_signature, signature.size())) != 0
            )
        {
            std::uint8_t * pp = 0;
            
            auto len = i2d_ECDSA_SIG(ecdsa_sig, &pp);
            
            ECDSA_SIG_free(ecdsa_sig), ecdsa_sig = 0;
            
            if (pp && len > 0)
            {
                ret = ECDSA_verify(
                    0, h.digest(), sha256::digest_length, pp, len, m_EC_KEY
                ) == 1;
                
                OPENSSL_free(pp), pp = 0;
            }
        }
    }
    
    return ret;
}

Which contains a workaround for the change in OpenSSL behavior that the john-connor was so busily insulting us about. The disassembly shows no calls to d2i_ECDSA_SIG in that function-- the only one in the whole binary is the one inside OpenSSL that was there all along.  Extra fun is the fact that this change appears to have been deceptively backdated in the git repository to December 9th.

Doesn't appear to have any of the GUI code either; I wonder what other ways the source doesn't agree with the binary?
staff
Activity: 4284
Merit: 8808
The last post on it's thread was on February 25 so as far as I'm concerned the coin's already dead. Anyone who read's it's 3 page thread will notice this warning so I doubt the dev will be able to scam many people..
Hm? The announce thread started 2014-12-12 and was locked 2014-12-23.

Interesting, looks like there was another bytecoin style name reuse.
sr. member
Activity: 316
Merit: 250
No one even remembers this coin, I know I don't.  If he has shuffled a group of victims off elsewhere, not much to do about it unless they come back to BCT and see your warning.

The last post on it's thread was on February 25 so as far as I'm concerned the coin's already dead. Anyone who read's it's 3 page thread will notice this warning so I doubt the dev will be able to scam many people..

1- dev waited for about 500 block to give any node  and then tell not premined
2- diff in few sec was over 100  Huh
3- fuck this shit of coin

hero member
Activity: 882
Merit: 500
MiG Messenger - earn while chatting
No one even remembers this coin, I know I don't.  If he has shuffled a group of victims off elsewhere, not much to do about it unless they come back to BCT and see your warning.
staff
Activity: 4284
Merit: 8808
Greeting, this evening john-connor showed up on the Bitcoin Core github with some rather aggressively ignorant minunderstandings of basic cryptographic consensus concepts: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5634#issuecomment-69481908

Having no clue who he was I looked at his github account and googled a bit and found that he is the, seemingly pseudonymous, author of "Vanillacoin".

Vanillacoin was previously discussed on this forum, https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-vnl-vanillacoin-beta-pre-release-890388 but he locked the threads in order to shuffle the users (victims?) off to someplace out of the light of day-- never a good sign, (nor is his BCT newbie account, for that matter).  The "vanillacoin" software has no source code available, it is binaries only (very much not a good sign, and usually severe malware concern; and an ultimate form of centralization), there are source links but they go to a basically empty github repository. There is a whitepaper, which like the comments on github show some general software development background they show no real sign of sophisticated understanding around decenteralized systems for adversarial networks or cryptocurrencies.

I don't know anything more about it, but I figure sunlight tends to be a good disinfectant; and with the threads locked it probably wasn't fair of me to say nothing while I was privately thinking "hm, that all smells pretty fishy".  Of course, the guy was a bit rude to me and also wasted my time-- so feel free to factor that bias in however you like. I'm just reporting my impression as a regular community member. You now know what I know.

[I'm the last person to play altcoin-cops... I mostly avoid this stuff except for the rare cases that are technically interesting: The drama can sink unbounded time and usually, when it comes to the more misguided altcoin cryptography, the only sane policy seems to be "If you see something,say nothing and drink to forget": there is too much crazyness and risk of being attacked for being critical of someones latest scheme. But if it shows up in my face, I can't quite stomach saying nothing at all.]

Cheers,


[Edit: Vanillacoin changed names to V.Cash]
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