Bitcoin Core 32 has entered candidate testing, aiming for a release on October 10

Bitcoin Core 32 has entered the candidate testing phase this week, with developers aiming to release the official version on October 10. This update is primarily aimed at node operators and developers, as it can accelerate block verification speed and adjust the way wallets handle payments.

According to the draft release notes, the update speeds up block verification by reading database information in parallel, but it will not change the Bitcoin block generation speed. Four wallet commands will default to the updated format for exchanging partially signed transactions, although applications can still request the old version. In terms of security fixes, the update prevents maliciously constructed wallet names from triggering commands on node computers, a vulnerability that affects non-Windows systems; another patch fixes an issue with excessive memory usage by the new HTTP server.

Contributor Matthew Zipkin described a "memory exhaustion scenario" in the patch proposal, which he discovered while auditing the new HTTP server of Bitcoin Core using the AI model Kimi K3. GitHub user jeanpablojp found that unauthenticated requests could also lead to memory growth during the review; after patch revisions, 16 unauthenticated connections caused only about 3 MB of memory growth in 90 seconds, compared to 3.2 GB previously. The patch was merged on September 5.