A threat actor has abused a vulnerability in the Wormhole cryptocurrency platform to steal an estimated $322 million worth of Ether currency.<\/p>\n
The attack took place earlier today and impacted\u00a0Wormhole Portal<\/a>, a web-based application\u2014also known as a blockchain \u201cbridge\u201d\u2014that allows users to convert one form of cryptocurrency into another.<\/p>\n Bridge portals use \u201csmart contracts\u201d on the Ethereum blockchain to convert an input cryptocurrency into a temporary internal token, which they later convert into the user\u2019s desired output cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n The attacker is believed to have exploited this process to trick the Wormhole project into releasing Ether (ETH)<\/a> and Solana (SOL)<\/a> coins far beyond the input they initially provided.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0reports, the attacker stole crypto-assets worth $322.8 million at the time of the attack, and which have depreciated to $294 million due to price fluctuations following news of the hack.<\/p>\n While a Wormhole spokesperson has not returned a request for comment on today\u2019s incident, the company has confirmed the attack earlier today on Twitter and has put its site into\u00a0maintenance mode<\/a>\u00a0while it investigates the incident.<\/p>\n ‼️ The wormhole network is down for maintenance as we look into a potential exploit.<\/p>\n 📢 We will provide updates here as soon as we have them.<\/p>\n 🙏 Thank you for your patience.<\/p>\n \u2014 Wormhole🌪 (@wormholecrypto) February 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Tal Be\u2019ery, CTO at cryptocurrency wallet app\u00a0ZenGo<\/a>\u00a0and the one who alerted The Record about the Wormhole attack, said the hack is part of a recent \u201ctrend of exploiting [blockchain] bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n Just a week earlier, a similar attack took place against another blockchain bridge when a hacker stole\u00a0$80 million from Qubit Finance<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once Wormhole formally confirms the amount of stolen funds, the incident will likely become the largest hack of a cryptocurrency platform so far this year, and the\u00a0second-largest hack<\/a>\u00a0of a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform of all time, according to data compiled by the DeFiYield project.<\/p>\n Be\u2019ery pointed out that just like in the Qubit hack, Wormhole is now\u00a0appealing<\/a>\u00a0to the hacker and asking them to return the stolen funds in exchange for a $10 million reward and a \u201cwhitehat contract\u201d that will most likely mean the platform won\u2019t file any criminal complaint against the attacker.<\/p>\n\n
Wormhole offers hacker $10 million as \u201cbug bounty\u201d<\/h3>\n
![\"Wormhole-bug-bounty\"](\"https:\/\/www-therecord.recfut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Wormhole-bug-bounty-1024x453.png\")