A critical vulnerability discovered in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool exposed weaknesses in the protocol's supply integrity that an emergency hard fork could not entirely resolve. Security researcher Taylor Hornby of Shielded Labs identified the flaw on May 29 during a targeted protocol review, with ZODL engineers confirming the issue within hours. The exploit resided within the zero-knowledge proof circuit underpinning Zcash's private transaction system, raising concerns about whether undetected inflation could have occurred. The discovery is notable for the role AI-assisted tooling played in surfacing the vulnerability, signaling that automated security analysis is now capable of probing cryptography at the base monetary layer — not just smart contracts. The incident highlights ongoing challenges in auditing privacy-focused protocols where shielded supply cannot be directly verified on-chain.
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