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Low 35 Bitcoin

simpleclosed.c: add heuristic to delay our tx broadcast if our amount is less AND our fee is less than our peer's amount and fee in case of a reboot the tx will be broadcast as usual.

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Níckolas Goline

83/100 · Strong
simpleclosed.c: add heuristic to delay our tx broadcast if our amount is less AND our fee is less than our peer's amount and fee
in case of a reboot the tx will be broadcast as usual.

simple_close_control.c: add delay logic to `drop_to_chain` after 1 hour.
test_closing.py: add test to verify the heuristic is being applied.
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides detailed explanatory context✓ Mentions testing or verification
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit adds a one-hour delay before Core Lightning broadcasts a mutual channel-close transaction when the local node has the smaller payout and proposed a lower fee than its peer. The goal is to let the peer's higher-fee transaction win the race to be mined first, reducing the chance that both nodes broadcast competing close transactions after a restart. It is a protocol-robustness improvement, not a fix for an active exploit.

Recommended action

Treat as a normal feature/robustness patch. Review the timer lifecycle to ensure the delayed broadcast is cancelled or rescheduled correctly if the channel state changes before the hour elapses, and verify that the peer's higher-fee transaction detection cannot be manipulated to indefinitely delay settlement.

Security signals we found

01

Race-condition mitigation in mutual-close broadcast after reconnect/reboot

02

Heuristic delay to avoid redundant competing close transactions

03

New wire message field delay_broadcast

04

Timer-based deferred on-chain broadcast

05

No cryptographic, memory-safety, or authorization changes

Risk score

Why this scored 35/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 8/30
Exploitability 3/25
Stealth signal 6/15
Affected reach 7/15
Confidence 7/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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