LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels

Cristina Pérez-Solà; Alejandro Ranchal-Pedrosa; Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí; Guillermo Navarro-Arribas; Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14

LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels

Cristina Pérez-Solà, Alejandro Ranchal-Pedrosa, Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí, Guillermo Navarro-Arribas, Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

The Lightning Network (LN) is a payment network running as a second layer on top of Bitcoin and other Blockchains. This paper presents the possibility of performing a balance lockdown in the LN due to misbehaving nodes associated to a given channel. We formalize and introduce a practical attack, minimizing the economic cost of the attack. We present results that validate our claims, and provide experimental results and potential countermeasures to handle the problem.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Joseph Bonneau, Nadia Heninger
Publisher	Springer
Pages	245-263
Number of pages	19
ISBN (Print)	9783030512798
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2020
Event	24th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2020 - Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Duration: 10 Feb 2020 → 14 Feb 2020

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	12059 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	24th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2020
Country/Territory	Malaysia
City	Kota Kinabalu
Period	10/02/20 → 14/02/20

Keywords

Bitcoin
Blockchain
Denial of service
Lightning Network (LN)
Network security
Off-chain payments channels

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14

Cite this

Pérez-Solà, C., Ranchal-Pedrosa, A., Herrera-Joancomartí, J., Navarro-Arribas, G., & Garcia-Alfaro, J. (2020). LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels. In J. Bonneau, & N. Heninger (Eds.), Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 245-263). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12059 LNCS). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14

Pérez-Solà, Cristina ; Ranchal-Pedrosa, Alejandro ; Herrera-Joancomartí, Jordi et al. / LockDown : Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels. Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Joseph Bonneau ; Nadia Heninger. Springer, 2020. pp. 245-263 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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title = "LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels",

abstract = "The Lightning Network (LN) is a payment network running as a second layer on top of Bitcoin and other Blockchains. This paper presents the possibility of performing a balance lockdown in the LN due to misbehaving nodes associated to a given channel. We formalize and introduce a practical attack, minimizing the economic cost of the attack. We present results that validate our claims, and provide experimental results and potential countermeasures to handle the problem.",

keywords = "Bitcoin, Blockchain, Denial of service, Lightning Network (LN), Network security, Off-chain payments channels",

author = "Cristina P{\'e}rez-Sol{\`a} and Alejandro Ranchal-Pedrosa and Jordi Herrera-Joancomart{\'i} and Guillermo Navarro-Arribas and Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro",

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Pérez-Solà, C, Ranchal-Pedrosa, A, Herrera-Joancomartí, J, Navarro-Arribas, G & Garcia-Alfaro, J 2020, LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels. in J Bonneau & N Heninger (eds), Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 12059 LNCS, Springer, pp. 245-263, 24th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2020, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, 10/02/20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14

LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels. / Pérez-Solà, Cristina; Ranchal-Pedrosa, Alejandro; Herrera-Joancomartí, Jordi et al.
Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Joseph Bonneau; Nadia Heninger. Springer, 2020. p. 245-263 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12059 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Navarro-Arribas, Guillermo

AU - Garcia-Alfaro, Joaquin

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AB - The Lightning Network (LN) is a payment network running as a second layer on top of Bitcoin and other Blockchains. This paper presents the possibility of performing a balance lockdown in the LN due to misbehaving nodes associated to a given channel. We formalize and introduce a practical attack, minimizing the economic cost of the attack. We present results that validate our claims, and provide experimental results and potential countermeasures to handle the problem.

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KW - Blockchain

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KW - Network security

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Pérez-Solà C, Ranchal-Pedrosa A, Herrera-Joancomartí J, Navarro-Arribas G, Garcia-Alfaro J. LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels. In Bonneau J, Heninger N, editors, Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 24th International Conference, FC 2020, Revised Selected Papers. Springer. 2020. p. 245-263. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_14

LockDown: Balance Availability Attack Against Lightning Network Channels

Abstract

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Conference

Keywords

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