chore: v0.44.3 release notes and changelog

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [v0.44.3](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/releases/tag/v0.44.3) - 2021-10-21
+
 ### Improvements
 
 * [\#10262](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10262) Remove unnecessary logging in `x/feegrant` simulation.
@@ -49,6 +51,7 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 ### Bug Fixes
 
 * (client) [#10226](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10226) Fix --home flag parsing.
+* (rosetta) [\#10340](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10340) Use `GenesisChunked(ctx)` instead `Genesis(ctx)` to get genesis block height
 
 ## [v0.44.2](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/releases/tag/v0.44.2) - 2021-10-12
 
@@ -66,7 +69,6 @@ Security Release. No breaking changes related to 0.44.x.
 ### Bug Fixes
 
 * [\#9969](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/9969) fix: use keyring in config for add-genesis-account cmd.
-* (rosetta) [\#10340](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10340) Use `GenesisChunked(ctx)` instead `Genesis(ctx)` to get genesis block height
 * (x/genutil) [#10104](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10104) Ensure the `init` command reads the `--home` flag value correctly.
 * (x/feegrant) [\#10049](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues/10049) Fixed the error message when `period` or `period-limit` flag is not set on a feegrant grant transaction.
 

RELEASE_NOTES.md

@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
-# Cosmos SDK v0.44.2 Release Notes
+# Cosmos SDK v0.44.3 Release Notes
 
-Recently, the Cosmos-SDK team became aware of a high-severity security vulnerability that impacts Cosmos-SDK v0.43.x and v0.44.x and can result in a consensus halt. User funds are NOT at risk; however, the vulnerability can result in a chain halt. This vulnerability does not impact the current Cosmos Hub, though other Cosmos-SDK based blockchains using v0.43.x or v0.44.x may be affected and are advised to update to v0.44.2 immediately.
+This release introduces bug fixes and improvements on the Cosmos SDK v0.44 series.
 
-Nodes can update their software independently of each other (no coordinated chain restart necessary), but should do so as soon as they are able.
+The main performance improvement concerns gRPC queries, which are now able to run concurrently on the node ([\#10045](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/10045)). To benefit from this performance boost, make sure to send your gRPC queries to the gRPC server directly (default port `9090`) instead of using the Tendermint RPC [`abci_query` endpoint](https://docs.tendermint.com/master/rpc/#/ABCI/abci_query) (default port `26657`).
 
-A full disclosure will be published a week after the release.
+This release notably also:
+
+- bumps Tendermint to [v0.34.14](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/releases/tag/v0.34.14).
+- bumps the `gin-gonic/gin` version to 1.7.0 to fix the upstream [security vulnerability](https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h395-qcrw-5vmq).
+- adds a null guard with a user-friendly error message for possible nil `Amount` in tx fee `Coins`.
+
+See the [Cosmos SDK v0.44.3 milestone]() on our issue tracker for the exhaustive list of all changes.