Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Found to Have Risky Vulnerabilities
Importantly, users running Lightning Network nodes should upgrade their clients ASAP. This includes those who use popular wallet solution Eclair.
“Security issues have been found in various lightning projects which could cause loss of funds.”
This was said by Rusty Russell, a developer of the Bitcoin Lightning Network. However, he did not disclose any details regarding the problem. However, we should expect details in four weeks. This presumably is to avoid exploitation of the said vulnerabilities.
“Everyone should probably have upgraded a while ago, but just to be sure: c-lightning < 0.7.1, lnd < 0.7, eclair <= 0.3 vulnerable,” Russell added.
However, this method of disclosure does not lack precedent. The privacy-focused Monero altcoin has again and again released details of hazardous security vulnerabilities in a similar fashion. The main idea is to fix the bad security flaws while also keeping the bad people in the dark. This will help avoid those who try to fork from the hardworking majority.
In addition, a new version of Lightning Network client version has been released recently. However, the security patch does not apply to this new version.
Lightning Flaws
Indeed, the Lightning Network works on top of Blockchain and actually doesn’t have its security behind itself. Thus, the network is only fit for microscopic transactions.
In conclusion, the network in its current version has channeled caps. That means the amount of Bitcoin stored in the wallet by two users upon the establishment of a channel; is the maximum amount of cash in that channel. This setup brings about a situation whereby some users may need to choose between having liquidity within the Lightning Network channel and having liquidity outside the channels on the main Blockchain. Crypotknomics provides you detailed bitcoin analysis and News.