BTC Lightning Network Is Vulnerable To Simple Disruptive Attack

The BTC lightning network is vulnerable to a simple, disruptive attack according to the latest research paper that we have in our Bitcoin news now.

The research paper was written by Saar Tochner, Aviv Zohar and Stefan Schmid and it describes a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that can be used to stop or slow down a huge percentage of the payments on the Bitcoin network and although this behavior has not been seen recently and the BTC lightning technology is still in progress, it is considered a major flaw in the network as it stands today. The paper entitled ‘’Hijacking Routes in Payment  Networks’’ and it was published in the middle of September. Tochner and Zohar both come from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem while Schmid works at the University of Vienna:

 “The attack allows for a disruption of payments on the lightning network.’’

It could be true that the BTC Lightning network is vulnerable since each network payment is passed across a network of nodes just so they can reach its destination. If one of the middle nods is a bad actor, it can slow the entire payment network rather than easily pass along the payment as it is supposed to. What is also more interesting, it currently doesn’t take too much to execute the denial of service attack according to Zohar:

 “It is extremely easy to execute. It takes opening a few lightning channels to key points, promising zero fees, and then not relaying any payments.’’

This attack according to the researchers has not been seen in the wild but it could potentially make the lightning payment network harder to use. When a user sends payment via the lightning network, it takes a path based on the factors including the node that requires the lowest fees. Despite the fact that there are hundreds of nods in the LN, one bad actor can use this attack to make sure there is high profitability that their node will be selected. Zohar explained:

“We can open channels that offer short and low-cost routes in the network which then are selected (almost always) for the route.’’