EIP-4758

Deactivate SELFDESTRUCT

Deactivate SELFDESTRUCT by changing it to SENDALL, which does recover all funds to the caller but does not delete any code or storage.

StagnantStandards Track: Core

Created: 2022-02-03

Guillaume Ballet (@gballet), Vitalik Buterin (@vbuterin), Dankrad Feist (@dankrad)

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EIP-4758 proposes to deactivate the SELFDESTRUCT opcode in Ethereum programming languages. This opcode allows a contract to self-destruct and send its remaining funds to a designated address. However, it has been identified as a potential security risk and has been misused in the past. The proposal suggests replacing SELFDESTRUCT with a new opcode called SET_INDESTRUCTIBLE, which would prevent a contract from being destroyed. This would make contracts more secure and prevent accidental loss of funds. The proposal also includes a list of exceptions where SELFDESTRUCT can still be used, such as burning non-ETH token balances or making a contract upgradable. Overall, the goal of EIP-4758 is to improve the security and stability of the Ethereum ecosystem.

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Abstract

This EIP renames the SELFDESTRUCT opcode to SENDALL, and replaces its functionality. The new functionality will be only to send all Ether in the account to the caller.

Motivation

The SELFDESTRUCT opcode requires large changes to the state of an account, in particular removing all code and storage. This will not be possible in the future with Verkle trees: Each account will be stored in many different account keys, which will not be obviously connected to the root account.

This EIP implements this change. Applications that only use SELFDESTRUCT to retrieve funds will still work.

Specification

The SELFDESTRUCT opcode is renamed to SENDALL, and now only immediately moves all ETH in the account to the target; it no longer destroys code or storage or alters the nonce
All refunds related to SELFDESTRUCT are removed

Rationale

Getting rid of the SELFDESTRUCT opcode has been considered in the past, and there are currently no strong reasons to use it. Disabling it will be a requirement for statelessness.

Backwards Compatibility

This EIP requires a hard fork, since it modifies consensus rules.

Few applications are affected by this change. The only use that breaks is where a contract is re-created at the same address using CREATE2 (after a SELFDESTRUCT).

Security Considerations

The following applications of SELFDESTRUCT will be broken and applications that use it in this way are not safe anymore:

Any use where SELFDESTRUCT is used to burn non-ETH token balances, such as EIP-20), inside a contract. We do not know of any such use (since it can easily be done by sending to a burn address this seems an unlikely way to use SELFDESTRUCT)
Where CREATE2 is used to redeploy a contract in the same place. There are two ways in which this can fail:
- The destruction prevents the contract from being used outside of a certain context. For example, the contract allows anyone to withdraw funds, but SELFDESTRUCT is used at the end of an operation to prevent others from doing this. This type of operation can easily be modified to not depend on SELFDESTRUCT.
- The SELFDESTRUCT operation is used in order to make a contract upgradable. This is not supported anymore and delegates should be used.

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