Washington: Hackers stopped the biggest crypto robbery in history on Tuesday, stole more than $ 600 million in digital coins from the token exchange platform Poly Network, and returned almost all of their assets within 48 hours, the company said. [nL1N2PJ21E]
This is what we have ever known about robbery.
What is a poly network?
A lesser-known name in the crypto world, PolyNetwork is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or exchange tokens between different blockchains. is.
For example, customers can use Poly Network to transfer tokens such as Bitcoin from the Ethereum blockchain to the Binance smartchain.
Poly Network was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Da Hongfei, who is now the CEO of the blockchain platform Neo.
According to Neo’s website, Poly Network was launched in August last year as a collaboration between Neo, crypto trading platform Switcheo and blockchain company Ontology.
How did the hacker steal the Tokens?
Poly Network works with Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Polygon blockchain. Tokens are exchanged between blockchains using smart contracts that include instructions on when to release assets to counterparties.
According to crypto intelligence company CipherTrace, one of the smart contracts Poly Network uses to transfer tokens between blockchains maintains a large amount of liquidity so that users can exchange tokens efficiently.
Polynetwork tweeted on Tuesday that a preliminary investigation revealed that a hacker was exploiting a vulnerability in this smart contract.
According to an analysis of transactions tweeted by Ethereum programmer Kelvin Fichter, hackers apparently invalidated contract instructions for each of the three blockchains and directed funds to three wallet addresses, which are digital locations for storing tokens. is. These were later tracked and published by PolyNetwork.
According to blockchain forensic company Chainalysis, attackers stole funds in more than 12 different cryptocurrencies, including ether and a type of Bitcoin.
According to a digital message posted on the Ethereum network published by Chainalysis, anyone claiming to have performed a hack discovers a “bug” without identifying it and “discloses the vulnerability” before others exploit it. I said I wanted to. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the message.
Where did the money go?
CoinDesk reported on Tuesday that a hacker first tried to transfer some of its assets from one of the three wallets to the liquidity pool Curve.fi, but the transfer was rejected. CoinDesk also reported that about $ 100 million had been moved from another wallet and deposited in the liquidity pool Ellipsis Finance.
Curve.fi. Also, I wasn’t able to immediately ask Ellipsis Finance for comment.
However, early Wednesday, hackers began transferring assets to PolyNetwork and back into wallets managed by both parties. By Thursday afternoon, hackers had returned almost all of their assets, and the tokens previously frozen by the crypto platform tether were only $ 33 million, according to Polynetwork.
We are still in contact with the hackers and call them “Mr. White Hats”. This is an ethical hacker who generally allows vulnerabilities to be identified and fixed.
Who are the hackers?
The hacker or hacker has not yet been identified.
Cryptocurrency security company SlowMist said on its website that it identified the attacker’s mailbox, Internet protocol address, and device fingerprint, but the company has not yet named an individual. The robbery “is likely a long-term planned, organized, and prepared attack,” SlowMist said.
Despite allegedly “white hat” hackers, ethical hackers who planned to “always” return money, according to a message issued by Chainalysis, are skeptical by some crypto experts. Is the target.
Chainalysis chief technology officer and former FBI veteran Gurvais Grig said Wednesday that white hat hackers are unlikely to steal such a large sum of money and may have refunded due to the difficulty of money laundering. Said.
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Explainer-How a hacker stole and returned a $ 600 million token from a polynetwork
Source link Explainer-How a hacker stole and returned a $ 600 million token from a polynetwork
