A hacker has made off with $2 million in bug bounty after discovering an alarming vulnerability with the Ethereum community. This bug may have been very unhealthy if it had been discovered by black hat hackers who may have exploited the digital asset for billions of {dollars} value of ETH. As a substitute, a ‘gray hat’ hacker popularly often known as Saurik knowledgeable the Ethereum staff of the vulnerability, netting himself a large reward in return.
Discovering The Vulnerability On Ethereum
Hacker Saurik had discovered the vulnerability on Optimism, an Ethereum layer 2 rollup answer. The hacker himself published a report as to how he discovered the vulnerability on the answer. Trying via nano funds protocols on the rollup, he had discovered a vulnerability that might permit an attacker to withdraw unbridled a ‘nearly limitless’ quantity of ETH from the answer.
Associated Studying | TA: Ethereum Overcome Hurdles, Why 100 SMA Is The Key
It was much like the assault technique deployed on standard good contracts blockchain Solana that resulted within the $353 million hacks on Wormhole. Optimism, like Wormhole, mint what are often known as “Wrapped Ether.” Customers deposit their Ether on the good contract to mainly function collateral and they’re even these tokens that solely exist on Optimism’s community. They then use nano funds protocol to make transactions quicker and faster.
ETH recovers above $3,100 | Supply: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Saurik who’s famously identified for growing the Jailbroken iOS had confirmed the vulnerability. Nevertheless, as an alternative of exploiting the vulnerability for his personal private acquire, the self-styled gray hat hacker had reported it to the Optimism devs. In return, Saurik was rewarded with a $2 million bounty for his altruism, which has helped to make the community and layer 2 rollup safer for customers.
Debunking Fashionable Rumors
After information of the vulnerability and subsequent bounty cost broke, there have been rumors circulating relating to what an attacker may have finished with it in the event that they selected to not report it to the devs. The preferred of those has been that the attacker would have been in a position to withdraw an infinite quantity of ETH from the community. Whereas this has some advantage to it, it’s largely false.
Firstly, the vulnerability exists on a layer 2 rollup answer Optimism. Whereas the protocol exists on the ethereum community, it isn’t the community itself. Which means that the vulnerability was localized to the protocol alone. So whereas an attacker would have been in a position to exploit this to withdraw an ‘limitless’ quantity of ETH, they may solely withdraw the accessible stability on the Optimism tackle.
Associated Studying | Will Ethereum Hit $7k This Year? Finder’s Panel Says Yes
Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless no secret that the outcomes would have been devastating for customers of the layer 2 protocol if a black hat hacker had discovered the vulnerability. This occasion speaks volumes in regards to the usefulness of bug bounties. Whereas the rewards for these bounties could seem too giant at first, one should take into consideration what the choice can be if there was no incentive for hackers to return ahead with their findings. White hat hackers little question assist to avoid wasting hundreds of thousands, if not billions, of {dollars} yearly.
Featured picture from Gagadget, chart from TradingView.com