Fixed this error message in the next release. The code that triggered this was added by 4.0.2. Since 4.0.2, there have been no table alters that didn't include the 'attributes' property. However, it appears there were alters that omitted this in upgrade scripts before 4.0.2, so this change broke backwards-compatibility in the upgrade system for users (such as yourself) who opted to skip those releases until at least 4.0.2.
When it is released, 4.0.4 (currently in QA) should restore backwards compatibility within the upgrade system for those users.
Thanks for finding this!