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Low 44 Bitcoin

lightningd-downgrade: downgrade askrene's layer info too.

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Rusty Russell

73/100 · Adequate
lightningd-downgrade: downgrade askrene's layer info too.

If they had a channel bias, and ran xpay, it will update the bias
to a v2 bias (with a timestamp). We must downgrade that, or the
older version won't load!

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

What changed, and why it matters

This commit fixes a bug in Core Lightning's downgrade tool. If a user ran a newer version that stored an updated 'channel bias' record (used by the xpay payment plugin to influence routing), then tried to downgrade to v25.09, the older version would fail to load because it didn't understand the newer data format. The patch teaches the downgrade tool to convert those newer records back to the older format. It is a data-compatibility fix, not a remote exploit.

Recommended action

No immediate security action required. This is a compatibility/reliability fix. Users relying on downgrade to v25.09 should ensure they are on a version containing this commit before downgrading if they have used xpay or askrene biases. Operators should treat downgrade refusal due to node bias as expected behavior and not a failure.

Security signals we found

01

Downgrade path can leave database in a state older versions cannot load

02

Newer askrene datastore record format not backward compatible

03

Tool now explicitly errors on unsupported node-bias downgrade

04

Regression test added for downgrade with askrene layer data

Risk score

Why this scored 44/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 12/30
Exploitability 5/25
Stealth signal 8/15
Affected reach 7/15
Confidence 8/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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