XRP Ledger’s Emergency Fix Exposes a Rare Governance Trade-Off

The two vulnerabilities reveal how the urgency and potential consequences of a security threat can shape the way blockchain networks implement critical fixes. The XRP Ledger has disclosed a critical vulnerability that could have allowed an attacker to create spendable XRP beyond the cryptocurrency ’s intended supply, forcing an unusual departure from the network’s established governance procedures. The flaw had existed in the payment engine since 2015. It was discovered through the XRPL bug bounty program on September 22 and corrected in xrpld version 3.4.1 three days later.