CVE-2022-39389
HIGHWitness Block Parsing DoS Vulnerability in lnd
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Blast Radius
github.com/lightningnetwork/lndReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Lightning Network Daemon (lnd) is an implementation of a lightning bitcoin overlay network node. All lnd nodes before version v0.15.4 are vulnerable to a block parsing bug that can cause a node to enter a degraded state once encountered. In this degraded state, nodes can continue to make payments and forward HTLCs, and close out channels. Opening channels is prohibited, and also on chain transaction events will be undetected. This can cause loss of funds if a CSV expiry is researched during a breach attempt or a CLTV delta expires forgetting the funds in the HTLC. A patch is available in lnd version 0.15.4. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may use the lncli updatechanpolicy RPC call to increase their CLTV value to a very high amount or increase their fee policies. This will prevent nodes from routing through your node, meaning that no pending HTLCs can be present.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd | all versions | 0.15.4-beta |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd to 0.15.4-beta or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-39389 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-39389 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2022-39389. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-39389 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2022-39389 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.