On December 4th, an X account called “Department Of #DOGE Efficiency” publicly disclosed a vulnerability in the Dogecoin network that, according to them, could have completely disconnected the chain. According to the account, the vulnerability “DogeReaper” allows anyone to remotely disconnect any Dogecoin node.

The account stated that the vulnerability works similarly to a "Death Note," from the Japanese manga and anime of the same name. In that fictional world, a Death Note allows one to write the names of people in a notebook, causing them to die from a heart attack.

The account explained that the vulnerability does something similar with #Dogecoin nodes. With DogeReaper, the social media account said that anyone could write the address of a node and cause it to stop functioning due to a segmentation fault.

In computing, a segmentation fault occurs when a program tries to access a part of memory it does not have permission to access. When this happens, the operating system stops the program for security reasons, causing a crash.

The account claimed that since Dogecoin nodes are publicly known, “anyone could disconnect the entire Dogecoin network instantly” using the vulnerability. “If a malicious actor had found this bug instead of us, they could have taken down the Dogecoin network for at least a few days, with no transactions or blocks,” they wrote.

Despite the potential of the vulnerability, the account noted that Coinbase considered the severity low and rewarded Ruck with 200 dollars.