ChainBleedv0.1 · open intel
← back to feed·INFRASTRUCTURE2020-12-08 · 5y ago
Incident · SLOWMIST

Aeternity

51% attack
Estimated loss
$5.20M
VERDICT —OUT OF SCOPE
Root cause is infrastructure (DNS / cloud / database / third-party API) compromise, not on-chain contract logic. Pre-deployment source review would not surface this; coverage lives in cloud-security + supply-chain audit, separate discipline.
▰ METHOD
INFRASTRUCTURE
INFRASTRUCTURE
Root cause

Root-cause analysis not yet published. The incident description below contains all currently available signal — review the attack transaction directly for definitive forensics.

Forensic narrative

Aeternity (AE) was attacked by 51% yesterday. According to core members of the Aeternity community, the 51% attack caused a loss of more than 39 million AE tokens. The official team is solving the problem. The main damages are exchanges and mining pools. Exchanges are concentrated in OKEx, Gate, and Binance. In this regard, Aeternity Chaohua Community Moderator "February Honghong" said that 51% attacks will not create new tokens. He can understand it as copying a fake token from the attacker and sending it to Exchange withdrawals are often the unlucky ones, and mining pools are the same. Therefore, 51% attacks are not technical vulnerabilities. POW itself is such an operating mechanism, so the team will not settle claims. Attack method (per SlowMist): 51% attack. Reported loss: $ 5,201,240.

Primary source
https://forum.aeternity.com/t/how-to-prevent-51-attack-on-aeternity-as-pow-blockchain/8516
Sourced from
slowmist
Technical record
chain
protocol
Aeternity
bug_class
infrastructure
date_occurred
2020-12-08
loss_usd
$5,201,240
source_id
sm:aeternity::2020-12-08
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