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 dangerous if it had been discovered by black hat hackers who may have exploited the digital asset for billions of {dollars} price of ETH. As an alternative, a ‘gray hat’ hacker popularly referred to as Saurik knowledgeable the Ethereum crew 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 would permit an attacker to withdraw unbridled a ‘nearly limitless’ quantity of ETH from the answer.
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It was much like the assault methodology deployed on standard sensible contracts blockchain Solana that resulted within the $353 million hacks on Wormhole. Optimism, like Wormhole, mint what are referred to as “Wrapped Ether.” Customers deposit their Ether on the sensible contract to principally 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.
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Saurik who’s famously identified for creating the Jailbroken iOS had confirmed the vulnerability. Nevertheless, as a substitute 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 Widespread Rumors
After information of the vulnerability and subsequent bounty cost broke, there have been rumors circulating relating to what an attacker may have performed 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 a limiteless 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’s not 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 deal with.
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However, 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 appear too giant at first, one should take into consideration what the choice could be if there was no incentive for hackers to return ahead with their findings. White hat hackers little question assist to avoid wasting thousands and thousands, if not billions, of {dollars} yearly.
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