Hacker begins to return funds to the GMX protocol after theft for USD $ 40 million

The hacker stole some USD $ 40 million taking advantage of a vulnerability, but the GMX team managed to agree with the person responsible for the return of the funds in exchange for a reward.

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• The attacker who stole more than USD $ 40 million GMX It has begun to return the funds.
• He agreed to receive in return a reward for USD $ 5 million offered by the protocol.
• Transfers include Eth, Frax and other assets stolen during the exploit.
• The incident is considered one of the biggest attacks DEFI of the year, originating in a failure of resentment.

The Decentralized Finance Platform GMX It has begun to recover part of the fund DEFI.

According to a report of COINDESKthe person in charge of hacking, who stolen USD $ 40 million, began the return process after receiving a public offer as a reward.

According to the report, the first signal came today through an on-chain message where it is read: “Ok, Funds Will Be Returned Later” (the funds will be returned later). Hours later, there was a transfer of more than USD $ 10.5 million in tokens Frax Towards one of the purses of GMX, details the Blockchain security firm Peckshield.

The exploit: vulnerability used by hacker

The attack focused on the liquidity pool LPG of GMX in Arbitrum. The attacker exploded a fault of “resentment “ In the contract Orderbook, A weakness that allows multiple calls to an intelligent contract before its internal condition is updated, which can lead to significant losses.

Through this technique, the attacker managed to manipulate short positions on BTC and artificially increase the value of the token LPG. Subsequently, he exchanged those assets for excessive profits in several cryptocurrencies, including USDC, WBTC, Weth and Frax.

GMX He responded immediately by disabling the trading and emission of tokens V1 in the networks Arbitrum and Avalanche In an attempt to recover the funds without resorting to legal actions, the protocol offered a reward of USD $ 5 million, equivalent to more than 10% of the stolen amount, provided that the totality was returned within 48 hours.

Ongoing return process

The on-chain security community and trackers such as Lookonchain and Peckshield confirmed the progressive return of the assets. Until now, more than USD $ 37.5 million have been returned to the purse of the Committee of Security of GMX, including approximately 9,000 Eth and USD $ 10.5 million in tokens Frax.

Although the return has not yet been completely completed, the rapid response of the protocol and the attacker to negotiate shows a rare turn in this type of incidents. The action seems to confirm that the attacker has accepted the terms of the reward, acting under the White-Hat Ethics Code, at least partially.

Market reaction and preventive measures

Following the announcement and partial return of funds, the token price GMX 13% has been recovered in the last 24 hours, quoting at the time of edition at USD $ 13.15. This reaction suggests that investors trust the ability of the protocol to manage crisis and strengthen their safety.

GMX He has promised to thoroughly review the architecture of his intelligent contracts, in addition to implementing additional audits to avoid future exploits. In parallel, calls in the community intensify DEFI to adopt more robust development standards and defense mechanisms against resentment, such as the use of optimized patterns for fund transfers.

Context and precedents

The resentment It is one of the most exploited vulnerabilities in the world DEFI. From the famous attack on The Dao In 2016 to the most recent incidents in protocols such as Curve either Hundred Finance, Design errors in intelligent contracts have proven to be an Achilles heel for the sector.

The case of GMX It stands out not only for the stolen volume, but for the coordinated response between developers, community and security companies. The use of White-Hat rewards as an alternative solution to legal processes is gaining acceptance, although it raises ethical and legal dilemmas on negotiation with attackers.

Written article with the help of an AI content editor, edited by Angel Di Matteo / Diariobitcoin

Original image of Diariobitcoin, created with artificial intelligence, for free use, licensed under public domain.

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