According to PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, a hacker has stolen $950,000 in Ether (ETH) from an Ethereum “vanity address” generated with a tool known as Profanity. This matter was reported Monday.
The hacker stole 732 Ethereum from September 25th and sent it on to Cyclone Money. According to PeckShield, the on-chain data indicates that this was done using PeckShield’s on-chain data. Here the funds were blended in with other cryptocurrencies and removed to the programmer’s own wallet.
This hack exploited weaknesses in the profanity vanity address generator. This strategy allows vanity addresses to be created using the Obscenity instrument. However, it makes it much easier to penetrate with a beast force attack. It takes a lot to penetrate and can be counterbalanced by how many cryptographic dollars are in the wallet.
In the aftermath of the attacks, the developers’ team behind Profanity took steps to ensure that no one continued using the tool.
This exploit was similar to the one Wintermute had been exploited last Wednesday. The U.K.-based algorithmic cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute was hacked on Tuesday, September 20 and suffered a loss of $162.2 million in DeFi operations. Wintermute hackers attacked a weak private key created by Profanity.
Since January, the Profanity vulnerability was well-known. Despite this, Decentralized exchange 1inch Network announced the risk on September 13th and warned Twitter users about the potential dangers to Profanity wallets.
A similar hack was carried out last week, September 18. It saw $3.3 million in cryptocurrencies stolen from vanity Ethereum wallet users. The hacker managed rob the tokens from many Ethereum addresses created with the Profanity software.
According to Certik, a blockchain cybersecurity company that deals with blockchain technology, approximately $273.9 million was lost due to compromised data in 2018. Private keysThis makes it one of the most powerful attack vectors.
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