- Solana developers propose removing durable nonces, the transaction feature exploited in the $270 million Drift hack.
- The change could take effect from May 2027, forcing custodians and exchanges to adopt new offline signing methods.
Solana developers have proposed removing durable nonces, a transaction feature that attackers exploited to steal at least $270 million from the Drift trading platform in April. The proposed change would require custodians and exchanges to adopt new methods for approving and signing transactions.
The proposal, known as SIMD-0723, was filed on November 5 by Gabe Rodriguez of Anza, the company behind Solana’s main validator software. It outlines plans to retire durable nonces and require all transactions to use a recent blockhash.
Solana Targets Durable Nonces After Drift Exploit
Durable nonces allow signed Solana transactions to remain valid indefinitely instead of expiring after a short period. Under normal conditions, transactions use a recent blockhash that becomes invalid after approximately 30 seconds.
The durable nonce feature replaces that time-sensitive blockhash with a longer-lasting authorization. This gives users more time to submit signed transactions, particularly when approvals involve offline systems.
However, attackers took advantage of this mechanism during the April 1 Drift exploit. They obtained transaction approvals in advance and left the signed transactions unused for more than a week before executing them to drain at least $270 million from the platform.
Drift later attributed the attack to a North Korean state-affiliated group.
The proposed removal does not specifically cite the Drift incident. Instead, it highlights several technical problems associated with durable nonces, including a 2022 incident in which a failed transaction passed through both the blockhash and nonce processing paths. The issue halted Solana’s mainnet for approximately 4.5 hours.
Custodians and Exchanges Face Major Changes
Removing durable nonces would primarily affect custodians and exchanges that rely on offline transaction signing.
These institutions often use air-gapped computers, which remain disconnected from the internet, to approve transactions. Their security procedures can take longer than the approximately 30-second validity window of a normal Solana transaction.
The proposal recommends replacing durable nonces with onchain programs that verify signatures created offline.
It identifies Anza’s Programmatic Signer and Blueshift’s Vector as possible alternatives. However, the proposed solutions also introduce security considerations.
A failed transaction, for example, may leave its authorization valid. This means a failed submission does not automatically cancel the underlying approval.
Custodians would therefore need to adjust their security procedures to ensure that previously signed transactions cannot be executed unexpectedly.
Solana Sets May 2027 as Earliest Removal Date
The draft proposal sets May 5, 2027, as the earliest possible date for activating the change on Solana’s mainnet.
It also provides at least six months for affected users and institutions to migrate after the proposal’s November 5 publication.
However, the Solana Foundation’s deprecation page still lists no confirmed activation date. Its timeline also links the migration period to the availability of a replacement, meaning the final deadline could move further out.
The proposal must also receive approval from at least one engineer at Anza and one at Firedancer, the competing validator software developed by Jump, before it can be merged.
A Small Group of Solana Users Accounts for Most Durable Nonce Activity
Although durable nonces represent a relatively small share of Solana transactions, their usage is concentrated among a limited number of accounts.
Data from one June measurement period showed that durable nonce transactions accounted for approximately 3% of network traffic but generated 30% of all priority fees.
Researcher Max Resnick also found that just 555 accounts were responsible for 97.5% of durable nonce transactions.
The findings suggest that removing the feature would have a limited direct impact on everyday Solana users. However, exchanges, custodians and other institutions relying on offline signing would need to prepare for the transition.
If approved, SIMD-0723 would mark a significant change to Solana’s transaction system as developers seek to reduce technical risks and prevent the misuse of long-lived transaction approvals.
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