logoalt Hacker News

Terr_10/03/20241 replyview on HN

> It can't do this, because the only "data" it has from the spender is a receipt.

It can because nothing in that artifact binds it to the one and only one site that the user expects. The only thing keeping it from being used elsewhere is if everybody keeps it secret, and the malicious not-really-spending site simply won't obey that rule.

In scenario form:

1. User goes to Attestor, inputs a Token for an output of a Burn Trigger. (I object to "receipt" because that suggests a finalized transaction, and nothing has really happened yet.)

2. Users submits that Burn Trigger to malicious AcmeWidgetForum, which (fraudulently) reports a successful burning and puts a "Verified" badge on the account.

3. In the background, AcmeWidgetForum acts like a different User and submits the Burn Trigger to InnocentSite, which sees no issue and burns it to create a new "verified" account.

Even if the User can somehow audit "which site actually claimed responsibility for burning my Token" and sees that "InnocentSite" shows up instead, most won't check, and even knowing that AcmeWidgetForum was evil won't do much to stop the site from harvesting more unwitting Users.


Replies

akoboldfrying10/03/2024

Ah, you're right. The receipt is "spendable" by the acceptor, since it contains nothing identifying the original spender.

show 1 reply