Sui Network Faces Multiple Outages Due to Upgrade Vulnerabilities
Severity: Medium (Score: 52.5)
Sources: Chaincatcher, Panewslab, Mexc
Published: · Updated:
Keywords: three, mainnet, outages, network, attributed, interruptions, upgrade
Severity indicators: vulnerabilities, outage
Summary
The Sui Network experienced three significant transaction halts over two days, attributed to vulnerabilities in its v1.72 upgrade. The first two outages were linked to flaws in the transaction fee deduction method, causing negative balances and crashes in validation nodes. The first interruption lasted six and a half hours, while subsequent outages occurred on Friday morning and afternoon. A temporary fix implemented on Thursday carried known risks, leading to further disruptions. The third outage was caused by an undisclosed vulnerability during a validator node restart. The Sui Foundation confirmed that user funds were never at risk and that both vulnerabilities have been resolved. A mechanism to forcibly terminate stalled epochs has been established to prevent future issues. AI agents were utilized to expedite the diagnostic process. Key Points: • Sui Network experienced three outages due to vulnerabilities in its v1.72 upgrade. • The first two outages were caused by flaws in the transaction fee deduction method. • User funds were never at risk, and both vulnerabilities have since been fixed.
Detailed Analysis
**Impact** The Sui blockchain network experienced three mainnet outages within 48 hours, affecting all users relying on transaction processing during these periods. The outages caused network stalls lasting from several hours to intermittent halts, disrupting stablecoin and other transactions globally. No user funds were reported at risk, but the interruptions impacted operational continuity for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and other services dependent on Sui’s mainnet. **Technical Details** Two independent vulnerabilities introduced in the v1.72 upgrade caused the outages. The first was a flaw in the transaction fee deduction related to the new "address balance" feature, which allowed transactions canceled for insufficient funds to still deduct fees, causing negative balances and validator node crashes. The second was an undisclosed random state vulnerability triggered during validator node restarts when applying patches. AI agents were used to accelerate diagnostics, and a mechanism to forcibly terminate stalled epochs was implemented. No CVEs or malware were specified, and no IOCs were provided. **Recommended Response** Apply the fixed v1.72 patch addressing both vulnerabilities immediately. Deploy monitoring for transaction fee deduction anomalies and validator node reconciliation errors. Harden validator node restart procedures to prevent random state issues. Monitor for stalled epochs and ensure the forced termination mechanism is operational. No specific threat actor indicators were identified for blocking.
Source articles (3)
- Sui Network Hits Third Transaction Halt in 48-Hour Outage Wave — Mexc · 2026-05-30
Sui, a high-performance blockchain, has experienced issues with its network activity for the third time in two days. The official Sui status page indicated that the network stopped processing transact… - Sui attributed the three mainnet outages to upgrade vulnerabilities, and secondly, the risk of ... — Panewslab · 2026-06-01
PANews reported on June 1st that, according to The Block, the Sui Foundation released an incident analysis report on the three recent mainnet outages, attributing the three outages that occurred last… - Sui attributed the three mainnet interruptions to upgrade vulnerabilities, with known ... — Chaincatcher · 2026-06-01
According to The Block, the Sui Foundation released an incident analysis report on the recent three interruptions of the mainnet, attributing the three network outages that occurred last Thursday and…
Timeline
- 2026-05-30 — First network interruption occurred: Sui Network halted transactions for six and a half hours due to issues with the v1.72 upgrade.
- 2026-05-30 — Temporary fix implemented: An urgent fix was applied to restore functionality, but it carried known risks of further disruption.
- 2026-05-31 — Second network interruption occurred: A second halt happened on Friday morning due to the temporary fix causing negative balances.
- 2026-05-31 — Third network interruption occurred: The third outage occurred Friday afternoon due to another undisclosed vulnerability during a node restart.
- 2026-06-01 — Incident analysis report released: The Sui Foundation confirmed the causes of the outages and stated that user funds were never at risk.
Related entities
- Sui Foundation (Company)