fix(transaction-controller): reject transactions that would deploy an empty contract#8744
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When a transaction has no recipient (`to` is empty string, `'0x'`, or `undefined`) and no real bytecode (`data` is empty or `'0x'`), the TransactionController would silently classify it as a contract deployment and broadcast it. Two places contributed: - `validateParamRecipient` treated `data === '0x'` as real bytecode because `'0x'` is a non-empty string and therefore truthy. - `determineTransactionType` had the same `'0x'` truthiness bug. Now: - `validateParamRecipient` requires `data.length > 2` for the bytecode to count as real, treats `to === ''` as missing alongside `'0x'` and `undefined`, and rejects with a more descriptive error message. - `determineTransactionType` only returns `deployContract` when there is real bytecode.
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OGPoyraz
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Explanation
TransactionControllerwould silently classify a transaction with no recipient and no real bytecode as a contract deployment and broadcast it, creating an empty contract on-chain with anyvaluepermanently locked inside.The root cause is that
'0x'is a non-empty string, soif (data)truthiness checks invalidateParamRecipientanddetermineTransactionTypetreated it as real deployment bytecode.validateParamRecipientalso didn't recognizeto === ''as missing.Validation now treats
to === ''as missing alongside'0x'/undefined, and both the validator and the type classifier requiredata.length > 2before accepting a missing recipient as a legitimate deployment.References
Checklist
Note
Medium Risk
Tightens core transaction validation/type inference around contract deployments; could cause some previously-accepted malformed transactions to be rejected or reclassified, but the change is narrowly scoped and well-covered by tests.
Overview
Prevents accidental empty contract deployments by treating missing recipients (
toof'','0x', orundefined) as invalid unlessdatacontains real deployment bytecode (more than just'0x').Updates both
validateTxParams/validateParamRecipientanddetermineTransactionTypeto require non-empty bytecode before allowing a missingto, adds targeted unit tests for the new edge cases, and records the fix in thetransaction-controllerchangelog.Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 7154b2f. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.