Bitcoin Core speeds up security fixes as 44% of surveyed nodes run unsupported versions

On Oct. 22, Bitcoin Core merged a policy amendment allowing developers to backport, or apply to older maintained versions, fixes for vulnerabilities that are easily rediscovered across every maintained release line and to publish an advisory with them. A network snapshot from Oct. 18 showed that 3,671 of 8,422 self-reported Bitcoin Core peers, or 43.6%, were running release lines that had reached end of life. Those release lines are no longer maintained. The change affects security fixes for older but still supported Bitcoin Core releases, while the snapshot indicates many reported peers were on unsupported versions.