Curve Finance exploit: Experts dissect what went wrong
Decentralized finance protocols proceed to be focused by hackers, with Curve Finance changing into the newest platform to be compromised after a site identify system (DNS) hijacking incident.
The automated market maker warned customers to not use the entrance finish of its web site on Tuesday after the incident was flagged on-line by various members of the broader cryptocurrency neighborhood.
Whereas the precise assault mechanism remains to be below investigation, the consensus is that attackers managed to clone the Curve Finance web site and rerouted the DNS server to the faux web page. Customers who tried to utilize the platform then had their funds drained to a pool operated by the attackers.
Curve Finance managed to treatment the state of affairs in a well timed vogue, however attackers nonetheless managed to siphon what was initially estimated to be $537,000 price of USD Coin (USDC) within the time it took to revert the hijacked area. The platform believes its DNS server supplier Iwantmyname was hacked, which allowed the next occasions to unfold.
Cointelegraph reached out to blockchain analytics agency Elliptic to dissect how attackers managed to dupe unsuspecting Curve customers. The group confirmed {that a} hacker had compromised Curve’s DNS, which led to malicious transactions being signed.
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Elliptic estimates that 605,000 USDC and 6,500 Dai was stolen earlier than Curve discovered and reverted the vulnerability. Using its blockchain analytics instruments, Elliptic then traced the stolen funds to various completely different exchanges, wallets and mixers.
The stolen funds have been instantly transformed to Ether (ETH) to keep away from a possible USDC freeze, amounting to 363 ETH price $615,000.
Apparently, 27.7 ETH was laundered via the now United States Workplace of Overseas Property Management-sanctioned Twister Money. 292 ETH was despatched to the FixedFloat trade and coin swap service. The platform managed to freeze 112 ETH and confirmed the motion of funds, in line with an Elliptic spokesperson:
“We have now been involved with the trade, which confirmed an additional three addresses that the hacker withdrew funds into from the trade (these have been accomplished orders that FixedFloat weren’t in a position to freeze in time). These embrace 1 BTC handle, 1 BSC Tackle and 1 LTC handle.”
Elliptic is now monitoring these flagged addresses along with the unique Ethereum-based addresses. An extra 20 ETH was despatched to a Binance sizzling pockets, and one other 23 ETH was moved to an unknown trade sizzling pockets.
Elliptic additionally cautioned the broader ecosystem of additional incidents of this nature after figuring out an inventory on a darknet discussion board claiming to promote “faux touchdown pages” for hackers of compromised web sites.
It’s unclear whether or not this itemizing, which was found only a day earlier than the Curve Finance DNS hijacking incident, was straight associated, however Elliptic famous it highlights the methodologies utilized in some of these hacks.
