The Wormhole bridge hack on the Solana network led to the loss of assets on $320 million – Bits Media

Hackers took advantage of a vulnerability in the smart contracts of the Wormhole bridge in the Solana network. They managed to get out 120 000 weth, that at the current course is $320 million.

Wormhole supports Ethereum networks, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Oasis and Terra and allows you to quickly and easily transfer assets from one blockchain to another. Hackers were able to take advantage of a vulnerability in the platform from Solana and withdraw wETH tokens worth $320 million. Now the assets are distributed between the wallets of attackers in the Ethereum and Solana networks.

The hack happened yesterday, 2 february, in 21:24 in Moscow time. Hackers released 120 000 wETH in the Solana network. Then 93 750 wETH were used to exchange for a similar amount of ETH on the Ethereum network. Another part of wETH was used to purchase SportX tokens (SX), Meta Capital (MCAP), Finally Usable Crypto Karma (FUCK) и Bored Ape Yacht Club Token (APE). Hackers exchanged the remaining wETH in the Solana network for SOL coins and USDC stablecoins.

Assets on other networks, supported by Wormhole, were not affected. but, according to Certik company, engaged in auditing smart contracts, a similar vulnerability may exist in the Wormhole bridge in the Terra network. The platform team contacted the hacker through a transaction on the Ethereum network and offered to keep the assets for themselves. $10 million for vulnerability detection, and return the remaining tokens and coins:

"These are the developers of Wormhole. We saw, that you were able to exploit a vulnerability in the Solana VAA verification process and issue tokens. We would like to offer you an agreement for “White Hat Hackers” - you will receive a reward for discovering a vulnerability in $10 million after the return of the issued wETH".

Wormhole developers emphasized, that the vulnerability will be closed soon, and then the required amount of ETH will be added to the network, so that the supply of wETH tokens returns to the proportion 1:1. Computer security specialists provide a detailed analysis of the hacking incident., with immersion in the code of smart contracts, used to steal assets.

According to Elliptic, Wormhole hack became the fourth largest hack in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. In mid-January, hackers were able to withdraw more than $2 mln from the Multichain protocol, moreover, assets worth more than $1 billion.