NRDAX-T0076 - Expensive Debug RPC Compute Amplification

Compute amplification · RPC and public API · no bound · active · first seen 2026-07-01

provenance: Reproduced in NullRabbit's attack-reproduction pipeline

mechanism

debug_traceCall compute amplification (geth: debug API is DoS-prone, do not expose)

live exposure

No exposure data. Slashr ↗ has no risk signal mapped to this technique yet — absence of data is not absence of exposure.

research

In-depth write-ups of this attack on nullrabbit.ai.

How an exposed debug_traceCall lets one unauthenticated request burn seconds of go-ethereum CPU ↗

instances (4)

chain	primitive	fidelity	origin	reproducer (bundle)	source
ethereum	eth_debug_tracecall_calltracer_callframe_breadth_amp	lab	NullRabbit Labs	eth_debug_tracecall_calltracer_callframe_breadth_amp	-
ethereum	eth_debug_tracecall_compute	lab	NullRabbit Labs	eth_debug_tracecall_compute	geth.ethereum.org ↗
ethereum	eth_debug_tracecall_jstracer_perstep_opcode_cpu_burn	lab	NullRabbit Labs	eth_debug_tracecall_jstracer_perstep_opcode_cpu_burn	-
ethereum	eth_debug_tracecall_structlog_enablememory_quadratic_amp	lab	NullRabbit Labs	eth_debug_tracecall_structlog_enablememory_quadratic_amp	-

related (Compute amplification)

NRDAX-T0006 - Async Runtime Blocking VM Execution active NRDAX-T0088 - GetData Request Flood active NRDAX-T0100 - Handshake Crypto CPU Burn active NRDAX-T0139 - Legacy Sighash Quadratic CPU Blowup active NRDAX-T0143 - Malformed Field Gossip Before Validation active NRDAX-T0148 - Malformed KZG Proof Mismatch DoS active NRDAX-T0166 - Move Verifier Fixpoint CPU Exhaustion active NRDAX-T0184 - Orphan Tx Resolution CPU Amplification active

cite

https://nrdax.com/techniques/NRDAX-T0076

plain

NRDAX Registry. Technique NRDAX-T0076.

bibtex

@misc{nrdax_NRDAX_T0076,
  title = {Expensive Debug RPC Compute Amplification (NRDAX-T0076)},
  howpublished = {NRDAX Registry},
  url = {https://nrdax.com/techniques/NRDAX-T0076},
}

json (csl)

{
  "id": "nrdax-NRDAX-T0076",
  "type": "dataset",
  "title": "Expensive Debug RPC Compute Amplification (NRDAX-T0076)",
  "URL": "https://nrdax.com/techniques/NRDAX-T0076",
  "publisher": "NRDAX Registry"
}

badge

[![NRDAX-T0076 in the NRDAX registry](https://nrdax.com/badge/NRDAX-T0076.svg)](https://nrdax.com/techniques/NRDAX-T0076-expensive-debug-rpc-compute-amplification)

use from the CLI

Retrieve or cite this technique from a script or the terminal with the NRDAX Python library & CLI.

Retrieve this technique

nrdax get NRDAX-T0076

Cite it (BibTeX)

nrdax cite NRDAX-T0076 --format bibtex

CLI guide → GitHub ↗