Alex Shevchenko explained that a security mechanism on the protocol allowed mitigating the attack within a short period. He suggested that the hacker help combat crime on blockchains like NEAR instead of stealing user funds.
Alex Shevchenko, the CEO of Aurora Labs, recently said a hacker lost 5 ETH in an attack on the NEAR protocol Rainbow Bridge. The executive reported that the criminal could not get hold of user funds.
Shevchenko explained that the mitigation of the attack occurred automatically within 31 seconds, thanks to their safeguard mechanism.
According to Chainalysis, that happened after hackers stole almost USD 2 billion from the DeFi industry in the first half of 2022.
Watchdogs Prevent an Attack on the Rainbow Bridge
The Rainbow Bridge, built by the NEAR protocol, allows transferring tokens between the Ethereum, NEAR, and Aurora networks. Shevchenko said it relies on trustless assumptions with no selected intermediaries to transfer crypto assets across chains.
However, the entrepreneur said hackers could not submit wrong information, as they need a NEAR validation consensus. That way, they are safe against the possibility of losing all their funds on the bridge.
He stated that those submitting wrong information must face independent watchdogs, which also guard the NEAR blockchain.
The Hacker Submits a Fabricated NEAR Block to Conduct the Attack
A hacker recently submitted a fabricated NEAR block to the Rainbow Bridge, requesting a so-called secure deposit of 5 ETH. He succeeded in sending the transaction to the Ethereum network, expecting the watchdogs to find it hard to react to the attack.
However, these challenged the malicious transaction, causing the attacker to lose his 5 ETH deposit, equivalent to around USD 8,000 at the time.
Shevchenko claimed that this occurred within only 31 seconds. The team verified that the situation was OK within one hour, following notifications about the strange activity.
The Rainbow Bridge suffered another attack on May 1st when it defended itself against an attempt by a hacker to steal funds. Shevchenko said that its design allows it to withstand that type of attack.
He added that Aurora has ruled out plans to improve security, as that would make the bridge more licensed and less decentralized. Instead, Ethical hackers received USD million from the protocol as a reward to help protect user funds.
Shevchenko told the cyber attacker that he should help combat cyberattacks instead of stealing money from users and struggling to launder said money. He would serve as a white hat hacker, helping improve the security levels of organizations.
Ether is trading at around USD 1,609 and has accumulated a 2.2% gain over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 16.18 million, its market capitalization is about USD 193.55 billion, according to CoinGecko.
By Alexander Salazar
