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Low 27 Bitcoin

Stop skipping the line in quiescence if our peer speaks first

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Matt Corallo

85/100 · Strong
Stop skipping the line in quiescence if our peer speaks first

In the case where we prepare to initiate quiescence, but cannot yet
send our `stfu` because we're waiting on some channel operations to
settle, and our peer ultimately sends their `stfu` before we can,
we would detect this case and, if we were able, send an `stfu`
which would allow us to send "something fundamental" first.

While this is a nifty optimization, its a bit overkill - the chance
that both us and our peer decide to attempt something fundamental
at the same time is pretty low, and worse this required additional
state tracking.

We simply remove this optimization here, simplifying the quiescence
state machine a good bit.
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides detailed explanatory context✓ Explains rationale or failure mode
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit removes a small optimization in the Lightning quiescence protocol. Previously, if both sides were about to request a pause (quiescence) at nearly the same time, the code tried to let one side 'go first' based on a tie-breaker. The commit simplifies this by always treating the peer that sends its pause message first as the initiator. This is a cleanup change that reduces state-tracking complexity and lowers the chance of subtle state-machine bugs, but it does not by itself fix a known active exploit.

Recommended action

Treat as a normal code-quality and protocol-correctness improvement. Reviewers should verify that removing the tie-breaker does not violate the BOLT-2 quiescence spec or break any dual-funded / splicing flows that rely on deterministic initiator selection. No urgent security response is indicated by the commit materials alone.

Security signals we found

01

Protocol state machine simplification

02

Removal of optional tie-breaker state that could become inconsistent

03

Change in initiator semantics when both peers request quiescence concurrently

04

No explicit security bug or CVE referenced in commit message

Risk score

Why this scored 27/100

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

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