Lightning Labs CTO Cites User-Side Security Failure

Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun has downplayed concerns over a newly reported bug that could allegedly allow attackers to drain funds from Lightning nodes.

Satoshi Labs co-founder Pavol Rusnak raised alarms in a 19 February X (formerly known as Twitter) post, urging users running outdated versions of Lightning Network Daemon (LND) and Lightning Terminal to upgrade immediately, warning of potential exploits.

However, Osuntokun clarified that the issue was not an inherent flaw in LND but rather the result of a compromised user device.

The Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution, currently holds 5,145 BTC—valued at approximately $500 million.

Keep Wallet Up-to-Date

Security experts at PeckShield emphasized the importance of keeping Bitcoin wallets updated and ensuring that any reliance on the vulnerable elliptic package is patched or upgraded.

Meanwhile, the Security Alliance team reassured that wallets remain secure if they strictly adhere to proper protocols—deriving nonces deterministically from hashed messages, ensuring accurate input-to-bytes conversion, and preventing custom nonce injection.

When a device is compromised—meaning it has been hacked, infected with malware, or otherwise controlled by an attacker—it can expose sensitive information, including private keys, login credentials, or wallet access.

In short, if an attacker's malware is running on your device, they can potentially control your funds without needing a vulnerability in the wallet software itself.

This is why keeping devices secure is critical for protecting crypto assets.