XRP Ledger Defends Emergency Patch Amid Criticism
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Written by: Felix Ng, staff editor Edited by: Yohan Yun, staff editor
XRP Ledger Defends Emergency Security Patch for Unlimited XRP Bug
Latest News
Published: Oct 12, 2026
The XRP Ledger Foundation refuted claims that its emergency security patch was forcibly implemented on network operators. XRP Ledger developers explained the urgency of the emergency patch, which fixed a bug that could have led to the creation of unlimited XRP, stating they could not afford to wait for the usual two-week validator vote without exposing the vulnerability to potential attackers.
The patch, released on September 25, took immediate effect on any server that installed it, three days after a bug bounty report. This bypass of the normal amendment process, which has not occurred in over ten years, was justified due to the bug's severity.
"With a normal amendment vote, the fix would have been public for weeks before it took effect, risking network security," XRP Ledger developers stated in a post on Sunday.
The accelerated patch raised questions about XRPL's level of decentralization. The platform claims to be a fully decentralized, public blockchain, a key argument in the ongoing debate about whether its native token, XRP, is considered a security.
XRPL Security Fix Under Scrutiny
Justin Bons, Cyber Capital founder, questioned the marketing of XRP to retail investors as decentralized, calling it "straight-up fraud" on Thursday. He criticized the emergency release, which shipped as binaries only, temporarily withheld source code, and pressured operators to upgrade.
However, the XRPL Foundation countered that the decision to skip the normal amendment process was a collaborative effort involving the Foundation, RippleX, core developers, and validators. They emphasized that no single party could have made this decision alone, as every validator and node operator has the autonomy to choose the software they run.
"No single party could make that call alone. Every validator and node operator chooses what software to run, and 3.4.1 only became required through a normal amendment vote with more than 80% validator support for two weeks. Protocol changes still go through amendments," the foundation clarified.
Independent Validator Operator Weighs In
XRP Kuwait, an independent validator operator, also rejected claims that the coordinated upgrades indicated centralized control.
"We disagree with the claim that operators coordinating an update is, in itself, proof of centralized control. Coordination is not the same as control. Independent operators can assess a situation, communicate with one another, and reach the same conclusion without giving up their independence," XRP Kuwait stated.
Bug Details
The bug, an integer overflow in the XRP Ledger’s payment engine, had been present since 2015, according to the project’s vulnerability disclosure report. XRP balances are stored as 64-bit integers with a fixed maximum. When a sum exceeded this maximum, the calculation wrapped to a smaller number, resulting in the creation of new, spendable XRP.
An attacker could exploit this by creating hundreds of specially priced offers, then sending one payment that consumed them all. The engine would credit each offer owner their full amount but charge the buyer only the wrapped total, effectively creating new XRP.
The attack required deliberately constructed offers and could not be triggered by normal trading activity. Developers confirmed no evidence of the issue being exploited on any public network.