# Downtime (DOW)

<figure><img src="https://3935398949-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FxTRnDyIanlwU7cCKcAju%2Fuploads%2F5afCsGmUpg8yll1bF1UC%2FDALL%C2%B7E%202024-01-04%2012.21.33%20-%20A%20digital%20artwork%20that%20captures%20the%20concept%20of%20downtime%20risk%20in%20a%20technological%20context.%20The%20image%20features%20a%20large%2C%20central%20clock%20with%20its%20hands%20froz.png?alt=media&#x26;token=6329be24-fc0e-4140-b037-f3ac84730978" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Downtime Risks:

<table><thead><tr><th width="109">ID</th><th width="141">Risk Group</th><th>Risk Vectors</th><th>Risk Vector Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>DOW1</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Operational Failure of Cloud Service Provider</td><td>Cloud Downtime, malfunction</td></tr><tr><td>DOW2</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>Operational Failure of own bare metal set-up due to malfunction software</td><td>Malfunction of software (e.g. validator client or third party software) leads to downtime</td></tr><tr><td>DOW3</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>Operational Failure of own bare metal set-up due to malfunction hardware</td><td>Malfunction of hardware (e.g. physical network, computer system, CPU, RAM) leads to downtime</td></tr><tr><td>DOW4</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Operational Failure of own bare metal set-up due to people (ManMade)</td><td>Employees are responsible for the downtime event (accidentally or intentionally)</td></tr><tr><td>DOW5</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Operational Failure of own bare metal set-up due to natural causes</td><td>A natural event (e.g. earthquake, flood, hurricane,...) leads to an downtime</td></tr><tr><td>DOW6</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>Failure to design for high availability</td><td>Having too few beacon nodes relative to validator clients, leading to:<br>- opportunity costs<br>- slashing on some networks</td></tr><tr><td>DOW7</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Internet connectivity</td><td>Loss of infrastructure network connection due to:<br>- Sudden cloud outage<br>- Sudden internet failure in on-premise machines<br>- Accidental firewall change locks out access.</td></tr><tr><td>DOW8</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Power supply</td><td>Power Breakdown</td></tr><tr><td>DOW9</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: Power supply</td><td>Volatile power supply damages infrastructure</td></tr><tr><td>DOW10</td><td>Infrastructure</td><td>External: DDOS attack</td><td>Systems unresponsive, slowed down, and compromized due to buffer/stack overflow</td></tr><tr><td>DOW11</td><td>Software</td><td>Software Bug in the Validator Client</td><td>DOWntime or accidental interpretation of dishonest behavior</td></tr><tr><td>DOW12</td><td>Software</td><td>Software Bug in the Validator Client (Intentional or accidental) through software update</td><td>New versions of a validator client that may cause errors that lead to downtime<br>(Supply chain attack)</td></tr><tr><td>DOW13</td><td>Software</td><td>Software Bug in the Validator Client through software customization</td><td><br>New versions of a validator client may cause errors that lead to downtime</td></tr><tr><td>DOW14</td><td>Software</td><td>Software Bug in third party software</td><td><br>Third party software failure can lead to downtime of the whole system</td></tr><tr><td>DOW15</td><td>Software</td><td>Latency / Failure of relays</td><td>Latency / Failure of relays</td></tr><tr><td>DOW16</td><td>People</td><td>Malicious Internal Employee (intentionally causes operational failure)</td><td>An employee having too privileged access</td></tr><tr><td>DOW17</td><td>People</td><td>Malicious Ex-Employee intentionally causes a downtime incident</td><td>A Ex-Employee can still have access to the system when his acces is not blocked or removed</td></tr><tr><td>DOW18</td><td>People</td><td>Malicious External Hacker (intentionally causes operational failure)</td><td>A hacker may find a way to overload the<br>system or shut parts of it down manually.</td></tr><tr><td>DOW19</td><td>Software</td><td>Running outdated validator software</td><td>The node operator os not updating its validator software</td></tr><tr><td>DOW20</td><td>Software</td><td>Validator client update incompatible with IT system</td><td>System downtime after validator client update caused by incompatibility</td></tr></tbody></table>


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