Breaking: CoWSwap Loses $150,000 In Exploit
February 07 2023 - 04:06AM
NEWSBTC
CoWSwap has been hacked for $150,000, according to a statement
endorsed by the DeFi protocol. CoWSwap Hacked For $150,000
According to the team, hackers took advantage of a code flaw in
CoWSwap’s settlement contract and made away with $150,000. The
amount lost was from fees collected by the DeFi platform. PSA: The
@CoWSwap settlement contract was exploited for $150k tonight. These
$150k are from fees collected by the protocol. As a trader, there
is no reason to worry or revoke approvals. Cowswap never takes
custody of your funds. All trades are purely atomic. Moo on — 🐮 —
Hasu⚡️🤖 (@hasufl) February 7, 2023 The good news is that the hack
didn’t affect any of the protocol’s user funds. CoWSwap reiterated
that though their settlement contract was impacted, the
non-custodial nature of their operation means traders don’t have to
“worry or revoke” transactions. They added that all trading
activities are atomic, seemingly to reassure traders that the hack
was contained. Related Reading: Lazarus Group Transfers $64M ETH
From Harmony Bridge Hack Before this hack, CoWSwap has collected
approximately $17.3 million in fees, data from Dune
shows. At present, CoWSwap says they are investigating the hack. We
are aware of an issue that has impacted the fees that CoW Protocol
has collected over the past week. We have mitigated the issue and
are conducting an investigation. Traders are in no way affected.
More details to follow. — CoW Swap | Better than the best prices
(@CoWSwap) February 7, 2023 However, according to analysts’
breakdown, the hacker was specific. Notably, their target was
CoWSwap’s settlement contract which stores fees collected by the
protocol over the week. As a safety measure, the contract doesn’t
interact with user funds. For access, the wallet owner must sign an
order approving the transaction. Only then will the hacker gain
entry to the user’s “limit-buy amount.” CoWSwap aggregates prices
from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and other aggregators on
Gnosis Protocol v2. Orders are settled peer-to-peer or from
on-chain liquidity sources for higher liquidity and protection
against Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) attacks via batching, where
transaction ordering becomes irrelevant. MEV attacks can be
via sandwiching and front-running. It is common in account-based
blockchains like Ethereum and the BNB Smart Chain. Related Reading:
Cream Finance Exploiter Moving Funds Over 16 Months After Hack,
Here’s Why CoWSwap Joins The Creative Alliance The hack comes hours
after CoWSwap joined other DeFi protocols, including Balancer,
Yearn Finance, and MakerDAO, in a creative campaign to point out
the advantages of DeFi. Participants would share each other’s
tweets. Draper, Yearn’s chief marketing officer (CMO), said
the campaign celebrates DeFi, adding that: There is something
special happening in Decentralized Finance. This campaign
celebrates what makes DeFi different from the systems it seeks to
replace – executed in a way that could only work in this space. We
hope it will serve as yet another reminder that, in the wake of
CeFi blow-ups, DeFi stands apart through its technological
composability and shared values. Feature image from Flickr, chart
from TradingView
Uniswap (COIN:UNIUSD)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2023 to Mar 2023
Uniswap (COIN:UNIUSD)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2022 to Mar 2023