Remove scan malfeasant flag (#6229)

## Motivation

This command line option was added during the last release to allow a node to scan its state during startup for the then newly introduced InvalidPreviousATX malfeasance proof.

Since then all existing ATXs that are invalid have been marked as such and all nodes check newly incoming ATXs directly for their validity. So this isn't needed any more.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ See [RELEASE](./RELEASE.md) for workflow instructions.
 
 ### Upgrade information
 
+The command line flag `--scan-malfeasant-atxs` has been removed. All malfeasant ATXs before 1.6.0 have been marked as
+such and the node will continue to scan new ATXs for their validity.
+
 ### Highlights
 
 ### Features
@@ -699,6 +702,7 @@ and permanent ineligibility for rewards.
 
 * [#5494](https://github.com/spacemeshos/go-spacemesh/pull/5494)
   Make routing discovery more configurable and less spammy by default.
+
 * [#5511](https://github.com/spacemeshos/go-spacemesh/pull/5511)
   Fix dialing peers on their private IPs, which was causing "portscan" complaints.
 

cmd/root.go

@@ -79,9 +79,6 @@ func AddFlags(flagSet *pflag.FlagSet, cfg *config.Config) (configPath *string) {
 	flagSet.DurationVar(&cfg.DatabasePruneInterval, "db-prune-interval",
 		cfg.DatabasePruneInterval, "configure interval for database pruning")
 
-	flagSet.BoolVar(&cfg.ScanMalfeasantATXs, "scan-malfeasant-atxs", cfg.ScanMalfeasantATXs,
-		"scan for malfeasant ATXs")
-
 	flagSet.BoolVar(&cfg.NoMainOverride, "no-main-override",
 		cfg.NoMainOverride, "force 'nomain' builds to run on the mainnet")
 

config/config.go

@@ -122,9 +122,6 @@ type BaseConfig struct {
 
 	PruneActivesetsFrom types.EpochID `mapstructure:"prune-activesets-from"`
 
-	// ScanMalfeasantATXs is a flag to enable scanning for malfeasant ATXs.
-	ScanMalfeasantATXs bool `mapstructure:"scan-malfeasant-atxs"`
-
 	NetworkHRP string `mapstructure:"network-hrp"`
 
 	// MinerGoodAtxsPercent is a threshold to decide if tortoise activeset should be

config/mainnet.go

@@ -80,8 +80,7 @@ func MainnetConfig() Config {
 			DatabaseConnections:   16,
 			DatabasePruneInterval: 30 * time.Minute,
 			DatabaseVacuumState:   15,
-			PruneActivesetsFrom:   12,    // starting from epoch 13 activesets below 12 will be pruned
-			ScanMalfeasantATXs:    false, // opt-in
+			PruneActivesetsFrom:   12, // starting from epoch 13 activesets below 12 will be pruned
 			NetworkHRP:            "sm",
 
 			LayerDuration:  5 * time.Minute,

node/node.go

@@ -2005,15 +2005,6 @@ func (app *App) setupDBs(ctx context.Context, lg log.Log) error {
 		datastore.WithConsensusCache(data),
 	)
 
-	if app.Config.ScanMalfeasantATXs {
-		app.log.With().Info("checking DB for malicious ATXs")
-		start = time.Now()
-		if err := activation.CheckPrevATXs(ctx, app.log.Zap(), app.db); err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("malicious ATX check: %w", err)
-		}
-		app.log.With().Info("malicious ATX check completed", log.Duration("duration", time.Since(start)))
-	}
-
 	migrations, err = sql.LocalMigrations()
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("load local migrations: %w", err)