The multi-chain or Çapraz zincir technology seems to be the new playing ground for hackers given the sheer rise. Users want to transact with other blockchains by leveraging bridges to different ecosystems. Nonetheless, several famed individuals such as Ethereum co-founder and developer Vitalik Butterin raised concerns about the same.
In his argument, Buterin atıf the “fundamental security limits of bridges” as the key reason for his disapproval of a cross-chain environment. Yet, here we are.
No more harmony?
The Uyum blockchain network is the recent victim to have succumbed to yet another çapraz zincirli köprü exploit. Horizon, its cross-chain bridge to Ethereum, suffered an exploit worth nearly $100 million in ETH. The team alerted users on Twitter in a 24 June tweet that read,
1/ Harmony ekibi, bu sabah Horizon köprüsünde meydana gelen yaklaşık olarak bir hırsızlık tespit etti. 100 milyon dolar. Suçluyu belirlemek ve çalınan fonları geri almak için ulusal makamlar ve adli tıp uzmanlarıyla birlikte çalışmaya başladık.
Daha ?
— Uyum? (@uyumprotokol) Haziran 23, 2022
Adres bağlantılı in the thread held 85,837.251 ETH, worth approximately $100 million as of press time. The alleged address made 11 işlemler from the bridge for various tokens. Further sent tokens to a farklı wallet to swap for ETH on the Uniswap decentralized exchange (DEX), then sent ETH back to the original wallet.
Kaynak: Etherscan
The Horizon Bridge facilitates token transfers between Harmony, the Ethereum network, Binance Chain, and Bitcoin. Harmony the operator of the bridge halted the bridge to avoid further damage. It said the BTC bridge and its assets have not been affected by the attack. The team further katma that ‘its funds and assets stored on decentralized vaults are safe at this time,’
In addition, the Harmony team cooperated with “national authorities and forensic specialists” to investigate the situation. The team explained,
“Ayrıca borsaları bilgilendirdik ve daha fazla işlemi önlemek için Horizon köprüsünü durdurduk. Soruşturmalar devam ederken ekip tüm eller güvertede. Bunu daha fazla araştırıp daha fazla bilgi edindikçe herkesi güncel tutacağız.”
Nonetheless, the damage was done following which ONE dropped 10% over the past 24 hours- it traded at $0.024 according to CoinMarketCap.
‘Deaf ears’ on a rise
Cross-chain bridges have gathered a lot of attention in the crypto market, but mostly on the negative side. In a similar case, Axie Sonsuzluk’s Ronin Bridge too acı a massive (nearly) $600 million worth of hack earlier in March.
In fact, at least five such bridges suffered the same fate since mid-2021 wherein attackers were able to steal more than $1B.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/the-a-to-z-of-harmonys-horizon-bridges-100m-hack/