According to reports from Cyvers Alerts, the hacker who stole 150,000 eth from Parity Multisig Wallet version 1.5 in 2017 has resurfaced, moving stolen ethereum worth $9 million to the eXch cryptocurrency exchange.
The hacker still has control over 83,017 eth, which is equivalent to $246.6 million stolen during the 2017 incident.
$9 million in ethereum is laundered
A post by Cyvers Alerts x acknowledges the hacker's remarkable patience, marking an important event in the history of cryptocurrencies. They began laundering 3,050 eth, equivalent to $9 million, through eXch, using several consolidated addresses.
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ALERT In 2017, a vulnerability in Parity Multisig Wallet version 1.5+ led to the theft of over 150,000 eth, valued at approximately $30 million at the time.
The hacker behind this theft has shown extraordinary patience, marking an important chapter in the history of cryptocurrencies. Today,… pic.twitter.com/JPD5nJcmrJ
— Cyvers Alerts (@CyversAlerts) twitter.com/CyversAlerts/status/1789935489044066327?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>May 13, 2024
The original incident, dating back to July 2017, was caused by a bug identified in a multi-signature contract called wallet.sol, which affected version 1.5 or later of Parity's wallet software.
The hacker found a bug introduced by the programmer that allowed him to reset the wallet, effectively resetting it to factory settings. This vulnerability eth-2a7704f59f3b” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>permitted the bad actor to gain control of victims' wallets with a single transaction.
The incident led to unauthorized access and the theft of over 150,000 eth, valued at $30 million at the time, but now worth $442 million at current prices.
Parity Technologies, the company behind the affected wallet, classified the severity of the bug as “critical” and issued public statements advising users with funds in multi-signature wallets to transfer their assets to secure addresses.
However, white hat hackers managed to recover 377,000 eth that were potentially at risk due to the same vulnerability, providing some relief to affected users.
Analysts Advocate for Strong Coding Standards
Analysts at OpenZeppelin, a blockchain infrastructure platform, provided information on possible measures that could have prevented the attack. They highlighted the importance of avoiding the use of certain encryption methods, such as the “delegatecall” function, which functioned as a universal forwarding mechanism.
They also emphasized the importance of following strong coding standards within the ethereum ecosystem, warning that bypassing such protocols could have serious consequences, even for seemingly minor errors.
Parity Technologies, known for its involvement in the development of the Polkadot blockchain and the Parity ethereum client, develops multi-sig wallets like Parity.
These wallets, designed as smart contracts, enable the management of cryptocurrency assets through a collective agreement between multiple owners. They offer features like daily withdrawal limits, voting mechanisms, and ownership changes.
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