core: check nilness before validating bal

core/block_validator.go

@@ -115,23 +115,22 @@ func (v *BlockValidator) ValidateBody(block *types.Block) error {
 	// Amsterdam hard fork.
 	if v.config.IsAmsterdam(block.Number(), block.Time()) {
 		if block.Header().BlockAccessListHash == nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("block access list hash not set in header")
+			return errors.New("block access list hash not set in header")
 		}
-		// If the block does not come with an access list, we compute the access list
+		// If the block does not include an access list, compute it locally during
-		// locally as part of execution and validate against the header's access list
+		// execution and validate it against the access list hash in the header.
-		// hash.
+		//
+		// If the block includes an attached access list, validate it directly here.
 		if block.AccessList() != nil {
 			computed := block.AccessList().Hash()
 			if *block.Header().BlockAccessListHash != computed {
 				return fmt.Errorf("access list hash mismatch, computed: %x, remote: %x", computed, *block.Header().BlockAccessListHash)
-			} else if err := block.AccessList().Validate(); err != nil {
+			} else if err := block.AccessList().Validate(block.GasLimit()); err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("invalid block access list: %v", err)
-			} else if err := block.AccessList().ValidateSize(block.GasLimit()); err != nil {
 				return fmt.Errorf("invalid block access list: %v", err)
 			}
 		}
 	} else if block.Header().BlockAccessListHash != nil || block.AccessList() != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("block had access list before Amsterdam")
+		return errors.New("block had access list before Amsterdam")
 	}
 
 	// Ancestor block must be known.
@@ -185,12 +184,18 @@ func (v *BlockValidator) ValidateState(block *types.Block, statedb *state.StateD
 	}
 	// Verify Block-level accessList once Amsterdam is enabled
 	if v.config.IsAmsterdam(block.Number(), block.Time()) {
+		if res.Bal == nil {
+			return errors.New("block access list is not available in amsterdam")
+		}
+		if block.Header().BlockAccessListHash == nil {
+			return errors.New("block access list hash not set in header")
+		}
 		enc := res.Bal.ToEncodingObj()
 		local, remote := enc.Hash(), *block.Header().BlockAccessListHash
 		if local != remote {
 			return fmt.Errorf("access list hash mismatch, local: %x, remote: %x", local, remote)
 		}
-		if err := enc.ValidateSize(block.GasLimit()); err != nil {
+		if err := enc.Validate(block.GasLimit()); err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("invalid block access list: %v", err)
 		}
 	}

core/types/bal/bal_encoding.go

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ func (e *BlockAccessList) DecodeRLP(s *rlp.Stream) error {
 // Validate returns an error if the contents of the access list are not ordered
 // according to the spec or any code changes are contained which exceed protocol
 // max code size.
-func (e *BlockAccessList) Validate() error {
+func (e *BlockAccessList) Validate(blockGasLimit uint64) error {
 	if !slices.IsSortedFunc(*e, func(a, b AccountAccess) int {
 		return bytes.Compare(a.Address[:], b.Address[:])
 	}) {
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ func (e *BlockAccessList) Validate() error {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
-	return nil
+	return e.ValidateSize(blockGasLimit)
 }
 
 // itemCount returns the number of items in the BAL for EIP-7928 size-constraint

core/types/bal/bal_test.go

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package bal
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"cmp"
+	"math"
 	"reflect"
 	"slices"
 	"testing"
@@ -357,7 +358,7 @@ func TestBlockAccessListValidateSize(t *testing.T) {
 func TestBlockAccessListValidation(t *testing.T) {
 	// Validate the block access list after RLP decoding
 	enc := makeTestBAL(true)
-	if err := enc.Validate(); err != nil {
+	if err := enc.Validate(math.MaxUint64); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Unexpected validation error: %v", err)
 	}
 	var buf bytes.Buffer
@@ -369,14 +370,14 @@ func TestBlockAccessListValidation(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := dec.DecodeRLP(rlp.NewStream(bytes.NewReader(buf.Bytes()), 0)); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Unexpected RLP-decode error: %v", err)
 	}
-	if err := dec.Validate(); err != nil {
+	if err := dec.Validate(math.MaxUint64); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Unexpected validation error: %v", err)
 	}
 
 	// Validate the derived block access list
 	cBAL := makeTestConstructionBAL()
 	listB := cBAL.ToEncodingObj()
-	if err := listB.Validate(); err != nil {
+	if err := listB.Validate(math.MaxUint64); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Unexpected validation error: %v", err)
 	}
 }