Security Risks of Trusted RPC Endpoints

Applications and devices that fetch blockchain data from a trusted RPC provider without independent verification face several threats:

• Data Manipulation Attacks—A compromised or malicious RPC provider can return falsified blockchain state data, leading applications to act on incorrect or misleading information.

• Censorship and Selective Withholding—An RPC provider can selectively withhold transactions, blocks, or account state data, preventing applications from accessing critical information.

• Replaying Outdated Data—Attackers or compromised nodes can serve outdated or invalid state data, leading to incorrect balances, failed contract interactions, or security breaches.

• Sybil and Routing Attacks—Adversaries can control multiple RPC endpoints and serve coordinated false data to deceive applications relying on centralized providers.

• Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks—Targeting centralized RPC endpoints can disrupt blockchain data access for all dependent applications.

• Privacy and Data Leakage—Unencrypted or improperly managed RPC queries can expose user addresses, transaction details, and behavior patterns to adversaries.

The reliance on trusted intermediaries for blockchain interactions contradicts the fundamental principles of blockchain security, which require trustless verification mechanisms.