Author: Corné Plooy 2019-01-08 13:27:02
Published on: 2019-01-08T13:27:02+00:00
In a recent discussion on the Lightning-dev mailing list, Rusty Russell argued that multi-asset Lightning Network (LN) may fail due to the problem of long-lived spam payments. This is because proof of channel unilateral close transaction (tx) would not be valid if it is from a different network. As a result, the exchange point itself would be penalized, making them vulnerable to a DoS attack. Though this measure has not yet been implemented, an attack on the victim could occur when forwarding an exchange transaction from network A to network B, and then the transaction gets stalled. The victim can demand proof that something went wrong on network B but cannot propagate that proof on network A, resulting in being penalized on network A. However, the victim can still demand proof that something went wrong on network B. Furthermore, since the same anti-spam measure that penalizes the victim on network A also penalizes the attacking node on network B, this somewhat reduces the attractiveness of this attack, even though penalties may not be equal.
Updated on: 2023-06-02T16:33:10.029957+00:00