Erroneous stateDiff in API calls for failed transactions

[delehef]

Description

The stateDiff field of the result of a pure transfer tx in trace_replayBlockTransactions call is null if the transaction failed.

Steps to Reproduce (Bug)

On an archive Besu node on the

1. Have RPC access to an archive Besu node following Holesky
2. Replay this tx's block and look at the result for the 16th tx with the following curl/jq command:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "trace_replayBlockTransactions",
    "params": ["0x1D1921", ["stateDiff"]]
    }' http://localhost:8545 | jq ".result[15]"

Expected behavior:

stateDiff should contain the balance changes for the tx sender and the block validator (here is the correct output as provided by QuickNode:

{
  # This is the sender
  "0x5324ff21932b3ae69a6d46aaf29eca5bbfb86b73": {
    "balance": {
      "*": {
        "from": "0x5bb96a5487a77495",
        "to": "0x5bb9573b1619f045"
      }
    },
    "code": "=",
    "nonce": {
      "*": {
        "from": "0xe3",
        "to": "0xe4"
      }
    },
    "storage": {}
  },
  # This is the miner
  "0x9baa3244565d51d9c7897c0eb6679ed4890e536e": {
    "balance": {
      "*": {
        "from": "0xa39659f932cf1b4668b",
        "to": "0xa39659fa646633eb68b"
      }
    },
    "code": "=",
    "nonce": "=",
    "storage": {}
  }
}

Actual behavior:

stateDiff is null.

Frequency:

100%

Versions (Add all that apply)

• Software version: freshly compiled from main branch, as well as 24.5.2
• Java version: 17 & 21
• OS Name & Version: Debian bookworm
• Consensus Client & Version if using Proof of Stake: Teku 24.4.0

Additional Information (Add any of the following or anything else that may be relevant)

It seems that this issue is triggered by simple transfer TXs running out of gas. The bug may be coming from this line, where the generation of the state diff is entirely skipped if there are no frames in the tx execution, hence ignoring the balance changes to the sender & miner.

[delehef]

@daniellehrner @shemnon

[siladu]

@non-fungible-nelson to discuss with @daniellehrner

[delehef]

Thank you!