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Disclosure: LND gossip_timestamp_filter DoSmorehouse.github.io/lightning/lnd-gossip-timestamp-filter-dos/
1119 sats \ 3 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 22 Jul lightning
by Matt Morehouse

LND 0.18.2 and below are vulnerable to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack involving repeated gossip requests for the full Lightning Network graph. The attack is trivial to execute and can cause LND to run out of memory (OOM) and crash or hang. You can protect your node by updating to at least LND 0.18.3 or by setting ignore-historical-gossip-filters=true in your node configuration.

...read more at morehouse.github.io
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 23 Jul
The Vulnerability

By default, LND cooperates with all gossip_timestamp_filter requests. Prior to v0.18.3, LND’s logic to respond to these requests looks like this:



LND loads all requested messages into memory at the same time, and then sends them one by one to the peer, pausing after each send until the peer acknowledges receiving the message. The peer can specify any filter, including one that requests all historical gossip messages to be sent to them, and LND will happily comply with the request. As a result, LND can load potentially hundreds of thousands of messages into memory for each request. And since LND has no limit on the number of concurrent requests it will handle, memory usage can get out of hand quickly.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Macoy31 23 Jul outlawed

Another reminder to always keep your nodes updated. This kind of DoS vector is simple but nasty especially if you are routing on the Lightning Network. Props to the devs for patching it quickly. For now, ignore-historical-gossip-filters=true is a good temp fix for anyone not ready to upgrade.