Study: 88% of hackers were 'copycats' when hacking Nomad Bridge

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According to data provided by analysts of the Coinbase exchange, during a large-scale hack of the cross-chain bridge of the DeFi project Nomad 88% the hackers turned out to be simple “copycats”.

Let us recall that in early August hackers removedfrom the Nomad bridge assets worth $190 million. The hack was called “the most chaotic in the DeFi space.” The fact is that when updating the smart contract, the developers made a mistake, due to which the smart contract automatically confirmed transactions. 

Any user could copy an already completed transaction, change the recipient’s address in it to their own, send it to a smart contract and receive tokens to their wallet.

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As Coinbase's chief researcher said inBlockchain threat area Peter Kacherginsky and Senior Special Investigations Officer Heidi Wilder, 88% of the addresses to which funds were withdrawn used the same transaction.

Initially, two hackers discovered the vulnerabilityand used it, and then many “copycats” copied the method and withdrew tokens to their wallets. Moreover, it was the first two hackers who withdrew a significant part of the funds in wBTC, USDC and wETH tokens.

Let us remind you that the developers of the Nomad projectannounced a 10% reward for refunds. And many attackers took the opportunity to become a “white hat hacker” - as of August 6, about 12% of stolen funds were returned to the project, and currently the figure has increased to 17%.