Rainbow Bridge Hack over the weekend saw funds return in just 31 seconds, with no damage to users. However, attackers lost 5 Ethereum. Near Protocol’s Rainbow Bridge was the victim of another hack attempt this weekend.
The project was successful in blocking the attack, just like the previous attempt in May. Alex Shevchenko , CEO of Aurora Labs, announced yesterday via Twitter.
The Rainbow Bridge links Near Protocol and Ethereum to Aurora–an EVM compatible scalability solution for Near that allows users to transfer funds between the networks using smart contracts.
Smart contracts can be used by anyone, even bad actors, because they are trustless and automated.
The attackers created a fake block on Near, requiring that Near make a deposit of 5 Ethereum early Saturday morning. Schevchenko said that the attacker might have hoped that the attack would be difficult to respond to in the early morning.
“Automated Watchdogs were challenging malicious transaction, which led to an attacker losing his safe deposit,” he wrote in the Twitter thread.
Hackers lost their 5 Ethereum deposit (or $8,000 at the moment) in just 31 seconds. The attempted hack resulted in no money being lost by users.
Schevchenko added, “Dear attacker. It’s great that you can see the activity from you end. But if you really want to make something useful, rather than stealing users money and trying to launder it, you have an alternate–the bug bounty.”
The Rainbow Bridge had already experienced a bridge hack before.
These watchdogs were notified in May when a breach was attempted. Shevchenko said that although the bridge was built to resist such attacks and additional measures were taken to reduce the risk of attack,
The fake transaction was challenged by the watchdogs, and 2.5 Ethereum was lost in the process, according to Shevchenko’s May Twitter thread.
The Crypto Bridge Hacks are the main stage
However, not all crypto bridges have been able to stop attackers as effectively as Rainbow.
According to Chainalysis, 69% of all stolen crypto funds will be lost by bridge hackers in 2022.
The aftermath from the Nomad hack in August saw $200 million taken from its bridge. This puts it at the seventh largest hack in the industry.
AxieInfinity’s Ronin hack was another destructive hack. It resulted in \$622 million being stolen. This hack follows that of the Ethereum and Solana bridge Wormhole, which resulted in a $320m loss.
Interview with Decrypt: threat analyst at Elliptic Arda Arkantura stated that bridges are essentially block tokens among blockchains and that “this means you have a lot liquidity and smart contracts with funds stored upon them.”
