Pasteur hardfork activates August 25, fixing a bridge signature verification flaw that let a manipulated validator set bypass approvals. BEP-675 boosts block throughput on testnet.
The Pasteur hardfork will activate on the BNB Smart Chain mainnet at 02:30 UTC on August 25, 2026, the BNB Chain team confirmed. The upgrade bundles three proposals under BEP-673 and addresses a security flaw in the cross-chain bridge's signature verification precompile.
BEP-682 fixes a vulnerability that could let a manipulated validator set list the same validator multiple times, reaching the approval threshold with far fewer real signers than required. Before Pasteur, an attacker controlling a minority of validators could theoretically approve a fraudulent cross-chain message. The patch rejects duplicate signers directly.
BEP-695 tightens validator key rotation rules. After the upgrade, a rotated key loses its administrative privileges immediately. Pending penalties follow the validator after a key change, and blocked addresses cannot vote in governance through signatures.
BEP-675 introduces the highest-impact performance change. Pasteur allows builders to submit pre-executed blocks, cutting the time a validator spends on block construction from 125 milliseconds to 15 milliseconds. On QANet, the internal test network that mirrors the mainnet validator topology, throughput rose from 1,237 to 2,324 TPS at the same gas limit without altering finality times. The BNB Chain team cautioned that these are controlled-environment figures, not mainnet measurements.
Node operators must upgrade to client v1.7.7 before activation. The [Eth] EnableBAL entry must be removed from the config.toml file, or the node will not start. Several CLI flags are being removed or disabled. Builders who want to use the BEP-675 path need to run a fullnode rather than a fastnode.
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