Hackers breached the network of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance

Last night, it became known about a large-scale exploit that took place in the BNB Smart Chain network, with an estimated amount of losses ranging from $ 100 to $ 800 million. The fact of the large-scale incident was confirmed both on the official page of BNB Chain and by the chairman of the exchange Changpeng Zhao.

twitter.com/BNBCHAIN/status/1 578 148 078 636 650 496?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1 578 148 078 636 650 496|twgr^a99f218bce395f2fcf558d25559e829cd87d7fe8|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://incrypted.com/Binance-stopped-because-of-massive-exploit/

Binance Smart Chain developers managed to detect the exploit immediately and temporarily suspend the network. According to official information, the hackers carried out the attack by borrowing from the Venus Protocol. It is known that the attackers' cryptocurrency wallet contains $ 1.04 million BNB, $ 389 million venusBNB, and $ 28.8 million BUSD. The total amount of losses may reach $ 800 million, but Binance has not confirmed this yet.

#PeckShieldAlert BNBchain exploiter has bridged ~$ 89.5M to other Chains (non-BSC chains), ~58% out to Ethereum and ~33% out to Fantom, ~4.5% out to Arbitrum @bnbchain @cz_binance @CoinDesk pic.twitter.com/ouZzJBSHBZ

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) October 7, 2022

The case was also investigated by security researchers from Peckshield, a company known for successful disclosures of well-known cyberattacks (including those of the Lazarus Group). According to the experts, the hackers used an exploit in the BSC Token Hub cross-chain. Thanks to this, the attackers moved about $ 89 million to other blockchains: 58% to Ethereum, about 33% to Fantom, and about 4.5% to Arbitrum.

Binance also decided to release an update to BSC validators, which are coordinating their actions to launch BNB CHAIN in the near future. The update is necessary to suspend the hacker account and break the links between BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain.