Old Lightning nodes may be exposed to a full-channel wipeout after LND fix lands later than disclosed

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LND, a Lightning Network node implementation, has disclosed a channel-close flaw that can put an entire channel balance at risk in the reproduced maximum-loss scenario. Operators using standard releases below 0.21.0 should treat their nodes as lacking the official fix unless they were independently patched.The Aug. 13 disclosure describes how a malicious channel peer could combine a one-block Bitcoin reorganization with an old, revoked commitment transaction after a cooperative close. Bastien Teinturier, who published the disclosure, said no affected users were known.Before the fix, LND could forget a cooperatively closed channel after the closing transaction received its first on-chain confirmation. That removed the channel state the node needed to respond safely if Bitcoin later reorganized that block out of the chain.The attack requires more than an ordinary one-block reorganization. A malicious peer must first participate in the cooperative close, wait for one confirmation, and then take advantage of a reorganization that removes the closing transaction. The peer must also possess and publish an earlier revoked commitment, an outdated channel balance state that should trigger p...

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