A crypto hacker specializing in “handle poisoning assaults” has managed to steal over $2 million from Safe Wallet customers alone in the previous week, with its whole sufferer depend now reaching 21.
On Dec. 3, Web3 rip-off detection platform Scam Sniffer reported that round ten Safe Wallets misplaced $2.05 million to address poisoning attacks since Nov. 26.
According to Dune Analytics information compiled by Scam Sniffer, the identical attacker has reportedly stolen no less than $5 million from round 21 victims in the previous 4 months.
Scam Sniffer, reported that one of the victims even held $10 million in crypto in a Safe Wallet, however “fortunately” solely misplaced $400,000 of it.
about ~10 Safe wallets have misplaced $2.05 million to “handle poisoning” assaults in the previous week.
the identical attacker has stolen $5 million from ~21 victims in the previous 4 months to this point. pic.twitter.com/fu4kxaI3py
— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@actualScamSniffer) December 3, 2023
Address poisoning is when an attacker creates a similar-looking handle to the one a focused sufferer frequently sends funds to — often utilizing the identical starting and ending characters.
The hacker usually sends a small quantity of crypto from the newly-created pockets to the goal to “poison” their transaction historical past. An unwitting sufferer might then mistakingly copy the look-alike handle from transaction historical past and ship funds to the hacker’s pockets as a substitute of the supposed vacation spot.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Safe Wallet for touch upon the matter.
A current high-profile handle poisoning assault seemingly carried out by the identical attacker occurred on Nov. 30 when real-world asset lending protocol Florence Finance misplaced $1.45 million in USDC.
At the time, blockchain safety agency PeckShield, which reported the incident, confirmed how the attacker might have been capable of trick the protocol, with each the poison and actual handle starting with “0xB087” and ending with “5870.”
#PeckShieldAlert #FlorenceFinance fell sufferer to a #AddressPoisoning rip-off, ensuing in a lack of ~$1.45M $USDC.
Intended handle: 0xB087cfa70498175a1579104a1E1240Bd947f5870
Phishing handle: 0xB087269DE7ba93d0Db2e12ff164D60F0b3675870 pic.twitter.com/x1BJ77lhFv— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 30, 2023
In November, Scam Sniffer reported that hackers have been abusing Ethereum’s ‘Create2’ Solidity operate to bypass pockets safety alerts. This has led to Wallet Drainers stealing round $60 million from virtually 100,000 victims over six months, it famous. Address poisoning has been one of the strategies they used to build up their ill-gotten beneficial properties.
Related: What are address poisoning attacks in crypto and how to avoid them?
Create2 pre-calculates contract addresses, enabling malicious actors to generate new related pockets addresses that are then deployed after the sufferer authorizes a bogus signature or switch request.
According to the safety staff at SlowMist, a bunch has been utilizing Create2 since August to “continuously steal nearly $3 million in assets from 11 victims, with one victim losing up to $1.6 million.”
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