Hackers have come up with a new type of attack on bitcoin exchanges
Date: 2023-07-29 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS, IN WORLD
Fraudsters forge transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges, which the platform's systems identify as legitimate deposits and credit funds to the account. SlowMist analysts told about this type of theft of money
"Attacks through fake deposits are not considered blockchain vulnerabilities. Instead, attackers use certain characteristics of networks to create special transactions," the experts noted.
They stressed that the task of hackers is to exploit bugs and system errors in the mechanisms for processing deposit transactions on crypto exchanges.
In total, experts have identified several types of such attacks. For example:
A transaction appears in the liquidity pool, but it is not included in the block due to its replacement by an attacker;
The transaction falls into the block, but cannot be executed due to the specified deliberately incorrect logic parameter;
The transfer of funds is accounted for several times, creating double costs;
A fork of the network occurs when a block and a transaction in it become invalid;
The translation is withdrawn.
How hackers steal money
The latter method was used by hackers to steal tokens in The Open Network (TON), taking advantage of the properties of the blockchain. Experts point out that almost all internal messages between smart contracts on this network should be "rejected".
As a result, attackers conduct transactions through an account without a contract and, knowingly setting the "refund" option, receive their funds back minus commissions. At the same time, the exchange system manages to credit them with the withdrawn transfer.
To avoid further collapse, experts advise exchanges to introduce several security measures. In particular, they should introduce a mechanism for multiple confirmations, activate strict comparison of transactions, and create risk control systems. In addition, it is recommended to use manual verification of large transfers, as well as to introduce time limits on the withdrawal of deposited funds.
Hackers laundered $245 million since the beginning of the year
In total, in the first half of the year, cryptocurrency hackers successfully laundered about $244.5 million in cryptocurrency. Most of all, the attackers laundered as part of the hacking of the Harmony Bridge cross-chain bridge (about $ 100 million).
In second place is the incident around the Atomic Wallet: here hackers were able to launder $65 million, although according to Elliptic, about $100 million was stolen.
