Lighthouse Update #43
Three forks, three years, and a node that costs less to run.
Sigma Prime — Blog
Technical writing on Ethereum security, consensus protocols, smart-contract vulnerabilities, ZK research, and what the Sigma Prime team is shipping.
Latest posts
Opinion: What Berlin Blockchain Week Told Us About Where Crypto Is Heading
Reflections from Berlin Blockchain Week on institutional adoption, agentic infrastructure, Ethereum's roadmap, and where serious builders are heading.
Collapsing the Security Review Cycle
How rolling commit reviews and integrated security engineers can reduce audit wall-clock time for AI-accelerated development cycles.
Go for Security Auditors: Part 2 - Finding The Doors Into A Codebase
The second in a three-part series on auditing Go code, covering how to orient in a large codebase, find entry points and attack surfaces, choose a review strategy, and use static analysis tooling effectively.
AI as a Force Multiplier for Security Engineers
AI has not replaced auditors. It has made strong auditors faster and more powerful, while also amplifying attackers.
Go for Security Auditors: Part 1 - Syntax That Will Trip You Up
The first in a three-part series on auditing Go code, covering deceptive syntax, common pitfalls like nil maps and slice aliasing, testing gotchas, and compiler pragmas that hide security-relevant behaviour.
Soldøgn Interop Recap: Glamsterdam & ePBS
A recap of Soldøgn Interop, covering Lighthouse's work on Glamsterdam and progress toward implementing Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation.
Defensive Protocol Design
This article covers protective steps developers can take to prevent protocol exploits via defensive design.
Your first ZK vulnerabilities: From ZeroKnowledge of ZK to OneKnowledge
An introduction to ZK circuit security, exploring fundamental mental models for creating and thinking about ZK circuits. Learn about under-constrained variable vulnerabilities that appear in ZK code through a practical Circom example.
Fusaka's Impact On Smart Contract Security
A summary of Ethereum's Fusaka upgrade and its implications on smart contract functionality.
The Ultimate Guide to the Top for Security Researchers: Setting Sail
A comprehensive four-part series guide for security researchers who want to rise faster, build reputation, and make lasting impact in the web3 security space, from foundations to mastery and consistent results.
Lighthouse Team on Trustless Payments
The Lighthouse team's outlook on removal of Trustless Payments from Fulu
"Fullhouse": Lighthouse + Reth in a single binary
Exploring Lighthouse and Reth in one “Fullhouse” binary.
Glamsterdam EIP Preferences
Sigma Prime's opinion on scoping of EIPs in the Glamsterdam hard fork
SP1 and zkVMs: A Security Auditor's Guide
Practical security checklist and auditing guide for engineers reviewing SP1/RISC-V guest programs (also useful for Risc0). Covers input validation, 32-bit pitfalls, third-party dependency compatibility, overflow protection and verification key handling.
The Economics of MEV in Cross-Chain Bridge Exploits: A Game-Theoretic Analysis
An explanation of how MEV affects cross-chain bridge exploits and the incentives driving them.
Pectra's Impact On Smart Contract Security
A summary of Ethereum's Pectra upgrade and its implications on smart contract functionality.
OPINION: The case against EIP-7732 for Glamsterdam
The case against EIP-7732 for Glamsterdam
OPINION: Glamsterdam's Headliner
My thoughts on Glamsterdam's Headliner
Road to Shipping PeerDAS to Mainnet in 2025
Some thoughts on what it might take to ship PeerDAS this year and how we might align soon on scope and timelines.
Live EigenLayer Bug Discovered During Sidecar Security Review
Analysis of a critical division-by-zero vulnerability in the EigenLayer sidecar rewards calculation process, its potential DoS impact, and the implemented fixes.
A Security Engineer's Guide to Reviewing Core Blockchain Nodes
A comprehensive methodology for conducting security reviews of blockchain infrastructure, using Reth as a practical example
Anchor 0.1.0 released: Sigma Prime's Rust SSV Client
Announcing the release of Anchor 0.1.0, our Rust-based distributed validator technology client for the SSV network.
Common Vulnerabilities: Oracles and Pricing - Smart Contracts
To achieve composability in DeFi, many projects require external sources of truth or price feeds. This article explores the common vulnerabilities in the use of pricing and oracles with real-world examples.
How to Consolidate your validators with Siren
Instructional for Siren users that want to consolidate their validators.
Transitioning from EVM to SVM: Key Concepts for Solana Security Assessments
Key concepts to understand the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM).
NEAR Smart Contract Auditing: Accounts & Access Control
This article explores how NEAR's unique account system combines human-readable names with multi-tiered permissions, examining the security implications and providing practical guidance for implementing robust access control in smart contracts.
The Pectra Holesky Incident
This article analyzes the Pectra upgrade on Holesky that resulted in long non-finality and adverse network conditions. We explore ways the Lighthouse team recovered from non-finality and how current and future optimizations will make the Lighthouse client more robust during periods of non-finality.
Lighthouse Team on Fulu
The Lighthouse team's outlook on Fulu EIP inclusion
Unraveling a Curious Edge Case in EigenLayer's Slashing Accounting
Examining an interesting edge case discovered in EigenLayer's beacon chain slashing calculation that affects withdrawable share calculations.
IPv6 in Lighthouse
for IPv6 Support in Ethereum
Lighthouse NAT Configuration
A guide to understanding, configuring and debugging NAT configurations to maximize a Lighthouse client's performance.
NEAR Smart Contract Auditing: Storage
In this article, we dive into the storage system of the NEAR blockchain. We'll explore how storage works on NEAR, how to use it securely, and highlight some of the common pitfalls.
NEAR Smart Contract Auditing: Sharding & Cross Contract Calls
NEAR Protocol introduces Nightshade sharding to tackle blockchain scalability while maintaining security. This article explores the security implications of cross-contract calls in sharded environments, demonstrating both proper implementation patterns and potential vulnerabilities through practical examples.
Common Vulnerabilities: Protocol Governance and DAOs - Smart Contracts
Many DeFi Protocols have decentralised using DAOs and token governance. This article explores the common vulnerabilities in the governance of DAOs with real-world examples.
Scaling Ethereum with PeerDAS and Distributed Blob Building
Exploring challenges, optimisations, key metrics and impact on node operators.
Siren Features that Enhance the Lighthouse Experience
Explore features from Siren that enhance the Lighthouse experience.
Common Vulnerabilities: Liquid Restaking Protocols - Smart Contracts
Liquid Restaking protocols are a big trend in the DeFi space. This article explores the common vulnerabilities in liquid restaking protocols with real-world examples.
Lighthouse tree-states ELI5 part 1
Have your cake and eat it too: An introduction to in-memory tree-states.
Forge Testing Leveling
Enhancing Forge testing with fuzzing and invariant testing for smart contract security.
The Effects of Ethereum's Upgrades on Smart Contracts
A summary of Ethereum's upgrades and their implications on smart contract functionality.
Missed Attestations - A technical guide to understanding and fine-tuning Lighthouse
A technical guide to understanding, diagnosing and fine-tuning Lighthouse for missed attestations.
Lighthouse Attestation Simulator
Introduction to the Lighthouse Attestation Simulator
On the Importance of the Security Alliance
About the new Security Alliance and why we support it
Inactivity leak under MaxEB (EIP-7251)
Explore the effects of EIP-7251 (Increase the MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE) on the beacon chain's inactivity leak mechanism
Lighthouse User Survey Results
An exploration of the results from the first Lighthouse User Survey.
Quic Support
A theoretically faster way to connect lighthouse nodes was included in Lighthouse v4.5.0
New Blockprint Graphs and Visuals
Announcing a graphical interface for Blockprint
Using Proxies: An Essential Guide
A practical guide to safe choices and best practices when deploying proxies for a project
Siren - The Lighthouse UI
Siren v1.0.0 release