Flood & Loot: A Systemic Attack On The Lightning Network

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Paper Summary

Conflicts of Interest

Identified Weaknesses

Rating Explanation

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Paper Summary

Paperzilla title

Lightning Loot: How a Flood of Transactions Could Drain Your Bitcoin Wallet

This paper describes a "Flood & Loot" attack on Bitcoin's Lightning Network where attackers overload the system to steal funds. The attacker opens channels with victims, floods the network with transactions, and then exploits the delay in transaction confirmation to steal the victims' funds. Several mitigation strategies are proposed, including reducing the maximum number of unresolved transactions and improving reputation-based behavior.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified

Identified Weaknesses

Dependence on blockchain congestion

The attack relies on the assumption that blockchain congestion will occur. While this is a valid concern, the frequency and severity of such congestion could affect the practicality of the attack.

Assumption about victim behavior

The attack assumes that victims will not use all available time to close channels, making the attack easier. This assumption may not hold in practice, as users might adapt their behavior.

Limited real-world evaluation

The paper evaluates the attack on a local Bitcoin regnet, which may not fully represent real-world conditions. The attack's effectiveness on the main Bitcoin network needs further evaluation.

Rating Explanation

This paper presents a novel attack vector against the Lightning Network, which is a significant contribution to the field. The methodology is sound, and the evaluation, although limited to a regnet, demonstrates the feasibility of the attack. The paper also proposes potential mitigation strategies, which is valuable for improving the security of the Lightning Network. However, the reliance on blockchain congestion and assumptions about victim behavior are limitations that need to be considered.

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