Gala Games

False top-up

Estimated loss

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VERDICT —OUT OF SCOPE

Root cause is private-key / signer compromise — the on-chain contract behaved exactly as written. No pre-deployment source audit or bytecode review reaches the key-custody perimeter; this is operational-security territory (HSM/MPC hygiene, key rotation, hot-wallet isolation). Bytecode would show nothing wrong.

▰ METHOD

PRIVATE KEY

PRIVATE-KEY

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

The token GALA of the blockchain gaming platform Gala Games underwent a major upgrade on May 15, 2023, and the token contract address was updated. As a result, there are now two tokens in circulation, both called GALA. The price ratio of old GALA and normal GALA is 1:12. The attacker has been using old GALA tokens to deposit funds on various exchanges since July 27 this year to test fake deposits. At the same time, hackers were also involved in the LDO “fake top-up” incident and the Nomad Bridge attack last August. On September 6, hackers deposited old GALA tokens to CoinHub, successfully causing the exchange to treat the deposited old GALA tokens as normal GALA tokens. Then the hacker user withdrew the real GALA. Now there is only $168 worth of GALA left in the exchange hot wallet, and the hacker earned 2.7 ETH. Attack method (per SlowMist): False top-up. Reported loss: 2.7 ETH.

Primary source

https://twitter.com/x_explore_eth/status/1701629659719623067 ↗

Sourced from

slowmist

Technical record