Chain Reactions: How Nonce Collisions in ECDSA Compromise Polygon MEV Searchers

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2605.21498v1
• Date: Sun, 03 May 2026 18:29:35 GMT
• Title: Chain Reactions: How Nonce Collisions in ECDSA Compromise Polygon MEV Searchers
• Abstract summary: We uncover a critical vulnerability in the Polygon MEV ecosystem.<n>We show that searchers, driven by the need for sub-second response times in sealed-bid auctions, employ predictable nonce patterns.<n>These patterns create linear relationships between signatures, allowing passive attackers to recover private keys using elementary algebra.
• Score: 0.1522374059398944
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: ECDSA signatures form the bedrock of blockchain transaction authentication, yet their security critically depends on proper nonce generation. We uncover a critical vulnerability in the Polygon MEV ecosystem: systematic nonce reuse that enables complete private key recovery. Analyzing on-chain data reveals that searchers, driven by the need for sub-second response times in sealed-bid auctions, employ predictable nonce patterns. These patterns create linear relationships between signatures, allowing passive attackers to recover private keys using elementary algebra. We provide a compact linear-system formulation for such attacks, including the dangerous case of cross-wallet nonce collisions, and present concrete evidence of exploitable patterns on Polygon. Our findings demonstrate how protocol-induced latency pressures can lead to catastrophic cryptographic failures in production blockchain systems, where a single implementation error compromises multiple accounts simultaneously.

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