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Low 35 Bitcoin

lightningd: immediately close without broadcast whenever we close a withheld channel.

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Rusty Russell

65/100 · Adequate
lightningd: immediately close without broadcast whenever we close a withheld channel.

There's no funding tx to spend.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides an explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This change fixes how Core Lightning handles closing channels where the funding transaction was deliberately withheld (not broadcast). Previously, the node tried to broadcast a unilateral close transaction for a channel that had no funding transaction on the blockchain, which is impossible and could cause errors or confusion. Now it immediately marks the channel as closed without broadcasting anything. This is a correctness and robustness fix rather than a direct theft-of-funds vulnerability.

Recommended action

Review and merge. The change is defensive and improves correctness for an edge case. No immediate emergency response is indicated, but operators should ensure withheld-channel workflows are covered by tests and monitoring.

Security signals we found

01

Avoids broadcasting invalid/unspendable close transactions for channels with no on-chain funding

02

Prevents potential crash or assertion failure in `resolve_one_close_command()` when `close_txs` is empty

03

Corrects state-machine handling for withheld channels during permanent failure

04

Plugin no longer attempts to sign PSBTs for withheld channels

Risk score

Why this scored 35/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 8/30
Exploitability 5/25
Stealth signal 6/15
Affected reach 7/15
Confidence 6/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

Community notes

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