$BNB Chain Pasteur hardfork drops Jan 25th — fixing two critical validator exploits that let bad actors game consensus.

Exploit 1: Cross-chain bridge signatures
When assets bridge into BSC, validators sign off to approve. Problem? A malicious validator set could list the same validator multiple times and count their signature repeatedly — hitting threshold with fewer real signers than required. Patched.

Exploit 2: Validator key rotation abuse
Old validator keys used to retain admin powers after rotation. Worse — validators with pending slashing penalties could dodge punishment by swapping keys. Not anymore. Penalties now follow the validator entity, and blacklisted addresses lose governance voting rights.

Bonus: Throughput upgrade nearly 2x on testnet (node operator level, invisible to users).

For holders: Zero action needed. Your bags are fine.

For node operators: Update your client before Jan 25th or get booted off the network.

This is infrastructure hardening — not a token play, but shows $BNB Chain is tightening security at the protocol level. Validator centralization risks getting squeezed.