Another BTC Lightning Network Vulnerability Discovered

Another BTC lightning network vulnerability was discovered in the project’s node software but it hasn’t been exploited yet as per the latest bitcoin news.

The developers have found another BTC lightning network vulnerability in the node software according to the recently published disclosure notice. The developer Conner Fromknecth disclosed the issue a few days ago on the project’s mailing lists. The disclosure advises the node operators to make sure to upgrade their software as soon as possible.

However, it’s still not clear how serious the vulnerability is as the disclosure doesn’t reveal how the potential exploit works but it does, however, suggest that the vulnerability hasn’t been exploited. Furthermore, the bug was fixed as version 0.11 of the Lighting Network software solves the issues and was released in late August which means that most of the LN node operates have already installed the fix.

The team noted that the vulnerability was discovered in a way that the disclosure process was shortened. More details about the bug will be released on October 20. Lightning Labs said that they will begin a “comprehensive bug bounty program” in the near future which means that there will be monetary rewards for those that will discover the bugs in the future. The Lightning Network is still developing a layer-2 payment protocol that operates on top of BTC enabling faster and cheaper transactions on the network.

This is the second time that a vulnerability was discovered in the Lightning node software as last ear Bitcoin developer Rusty Russel found a separate vulnerability that allowed hackers to steal funds by sending invalid transactions. Lightning Labs never announced how much of the users were victims of the exploit as the team confirmed that the vulnerability was exploited. Both of the bugs are concerning short-lived programming oversights but not the security issues that are fundamental to the design of the Lightning itself. Many users see the LN as the most promising way to speed up the BTC transactions and to also reduce the fees. Major crypto companies like CoinGate and Bitfinex adopted the LN without any issues.

On the other hand, Lightning labs stated that the project is in its early stages and has advised users not to put more money on the LN at least not more than they are willing to lose. As such, it is not clear whether the LN is prepared for prime time.