SSDs quickly degrade as MetaMask bug adds 500GB daily.
ConsenSys assures that broken browser extensions will soon be fixed.
Deactivating MetaMask extension stops the abnormal disk activity immediately.
The popular browser wallet extension MetaMask has a critical vulnerability that might cause users’ solid-state discs (SSDs) to fail completely. The bug results in the MetaMask extension, especially on the Chromium-based browsers, continuously writing data to the SSDs at an appalling rate (approximately 5MB/s) even when the wallet is logged out. Such an abnormal write pattern translates to approximately 500GB per day and an unbelievable 25TB within a mere three-month period.
This technical glitch was raised following the observation of the unusually rapid decline of the service life of SSDs by their users. One user wrote that disk analytics showed that their SSD had a halved life due to MetaMask 24/7. A second one confirmed that the extension had written more than 100GB in a day after which it stopped when MetaMask was deactivated.
MetaMask users who have a lot of state data or many transactions seem particularly at risk. This bug runs in the background and does not depend on user actions, and it has been confirmed with tools such as Windows Performance Recorder. The infected files are stored in the Local Extension Settings folder, which causes a huge amount of wear and tear to the drive and is posing as a normal disk activity to most systems.
Widespread Impact, Imminent Solution Promised
Source – Github
First emerging in the open issues on GitHub, the problem was soon noticed in the case of accumulating reports. It was demonstrated there was widespread degradation of SSDs on a variety of platforms; the flaw was exhibited in Chrome, Edge, and Opera. Frequent complaints showed that the standard SSD wear that takes years to be experienced, would be reduced to months of working with MetaMask.
A member of the MetaMask developer team, ConsenSys, acknowledged that the afflicted systems showed unusually high disc activity. “We are releasing a fix imminently,” officials from the firm said. Both the state’s size and the amount of background data pushes and fetches are being addressed by the development team.
Recorded quotes indicate a sense of urgency without pointing the finger: We are working on this and streamlining the performance of extensions, an update paraphrased. The attention is given to maintaining the health of the drive and avoiding additional data losses, particularly among users who actively manage their ETH and ERC-20 tokens.
The issue with MetaMask can be traced back at least to May, when users had reported the same high disk usage months before it was addressed by developers. At the same time, the company now promises that its solution will not only minimize the number of data writes, but also the number of data retrievals, which goes to the core of SSD issues.
What Users Should Know and Protect Against
Non-stop writing on SSD not only eats up disk space, but also drastically reduces the hardware life expectancy.Most solid-state drives (SSDs) have a lifespan of five to ten years. The likelihood of device failure grows exponentially due to the MetaMask flaw, which rapidly reduces that window.The disk activity causes the battery to drain and may result in the slowing down of applications or even the failure of the drive.
This finding has shed light to the wider issue of quality assurance of decentralized app extensions. This means that crypto users have a new layer of risk added to it in terms of hardware, a fact that reminds the crypto ecosystem of how badly it needs sound software testing and frequent updates.
It is recommended that affected users disable or uninstall the MetaMask extension on affected browsers until the looming update is more widespread.