KyberSwap Suffers Attack, Offers 15% Bounty

Ethereum-based on-chain liquidity protocol Kyber Network has offered attackers of its decentralized exchange, KyberSwap a 15% bounty reward in exchange for the stolen funds.

In a recent blog post shared by the Kyber team, KyberSwap’s frontend was exploited and the attackers stole about $265,000 worth of user funds. Upon detection of the suspicious activity, the team disabled the user interface to carry out an investigation on the cause of the frontend exploit.

According to its investigations, on September 1, hackers discretely inserted a malicious code in its Google Tag Manager to initiate false approval. This allowed the hacker to transfer users’ funds to his address. The codes were designed to target wallets with huge sums as per the investigation.

So far, only two addresses were affected by the exploit as per Kyber’s investigation. It said it is in contact with the affected user for compensation plans.

The team restored the website, after it had successfully identified the attackers’ address and neutralized the damage on its front end.

Kyber Network, in its message to the attacker, says it will give a 15% bounty offer of the stolen funds in exchange for the return of the funds and a conversation with its team. This amounts to about $40,000 of the amount stolen. It asked that funds be returned to a wallet address it provided.

Furthermore, the protocol said it could track down the hacker as it knows his addresses and will therefore need to reveal himself to cash out the funds.

According to its co-founder Loi Luu, this is the first attack on the network in five years. 

Luu assured the community that there was no vulnerability to its smart contract and his team worked tirelessly to neutralize the attack after two hours of investigation.

Other Defi attacks in the cryptosphere

The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector has continued to suffer attacks from bad actors in the space.

In what is described as the biggest Defi attack, the Ronin Bridge lost $625 million to hackers earlier this year. The bridge resumed operations in June, months after it halted activity due to the exploit. Its CEO, Trung Nguyen recently dismissed claims of insider trading after he transferred $3 million worth of assets to Binance.

Likewise, in a simple “copy and paste” instruction, a group of ethical hackers and other criminal groups exploited the Nomad Bridge. About $32.6 million worth of assets have since been returned after pleas from the bridge