Ethereum Pauses Glamsterdam Fork on Hoodi Over Contract Risks

Ethereum developers have paused the Glamsterdam upgrade’s planned fork on the Hoodi testnet until security concerns involving eight smart-contract invariants are resolved, the Ethereum Foundation said. The delay follows a ChainSecurity report that identified potential risks to contracts relying on assumptions about gas costs.

The concerns involve EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, proposals that change how gas is charged for certain operations. According to the Foundation and ChainSecurity’s October 13 report, some contracts may behave unexpectedly when an external call fails if they rely on fixed gas assumptions. The report identified potential effects on contracts that expect a failed operation to leave too little gas for subsequent steps.

The Foundation said the Hoodi fork will not proceed until developers resolve the concerns. Developers are assessing which contracts may be affected and whether remedies require updates to individual contracts, changes to the proposals, or both. The specific projects affected and the eventual scope of any fixes have not been established in the reports.

The Foundation said it is working with ChainSecurity and Dedaub and conducting internal reviews. It has...