Crypto platform loses Ether tokens worth $320 million

Trouble again around a cryptocurrency platform. A security vulnerability in the trading platform Wormhole was supposed to be closed by a bug fix. However, since it was simply forgotten to also apply the fix, unknown perpetrators were now able to gain access and in the process capture crypto money worth the equivalent of 320 million US dollars.

Wormhole bug fix causes huge loss

The security vulnerability at crypto trading platform Wormhole has been known for weeks and should now finally be fixed by a bugfix. However, due to a consequential error, the platform now lost around 120,000 Ether tokens, which is equivalent to $320 million, at the hands of unknown persons.

It was simply forgotten to also apply the bugfix that had been uploaded. This is the second largest DeFi hack of all time.

Wormhole is a classic blockchain bridge. It allows crypto tokens to be applied to different blockchains on the network. In the case of Wormhole, these are the blockchains Terra, Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche and Polygon, as reported by the Blockworks page.

What should lead to better scalability of the networks, of course, also provides attackers with additional entry points and opportunities to send the crypto tokens traded within them to other, less trusted networks.

How might the theft have gone down?

Twitter user @samczsun reconstructs in his tweet how de crypto theft might have occurred at Wormhole. He assumes that the perpetrators simply faked signatures in the process, which would have allowed for the unauthorized creation of Ether tokens. This was made possible by the incorrect validation of input by users.

https://twitter.com/samczsun/status/1489044939732406275

Wormhole itself asked the perpetrators, meanwhile, to accept a payment of $10 million if the captured tokens were returned and information about how the attack was carried out was shared with the crypto trading platform operator.

Just a few days ago, crypto trading platform Qubit Finance also stole an amount equivalent to $80 million. In this case, too, the operator is offering the perpetrators a reward in the millions for the return of the money.