This is the second time such an attack has happened to these same platforms, with another DNS hijacking incident occurring almost exactly two years ago. In that instance, users lost around $100,000 when submitting transactions via the scam websites.
Aerodrome and Velodrome suffer website takeovers, again
Attackers redirected users intending to visit the websites for the decentralized exchanges Aerodrome and Velodrome to their own fraudulent versions using DNS hijacking, after taking control of the websites' domains. The platforms urged users not to visit the websites as they worked to regain control.
Cardano founder calls the FBI on a user who says his AI mistake caused a chainsplit
On November 21, the Cardano blockchain suffered a major chainsplit after someone created a transaction that exploited an old bug in Cardano node software, causing the chain to split. The person who submitted the transaction fessed up on Twitter, writing, "It started off as a 'let's see if I can reproduce the bad transaction' personal challenge and then I was dumb enough to rely on AI's instructions on how to block all traffic in/out of my Linux server without properly testing it on testnet first, and then watched in horror as the last block time on explorers froze."
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, responded with a tweet boasting about how quickly the chain recovered from the catastrophic split, then accused the person of acting maliciously. "It was absolutely personal", Hoskinson wrote, adding that the person's public version of events was merely him "trying to walk it back because he knows the FBI is already involved". Hoskinson added, "There was a premeditated attack from a disgruntled [single pool operator] who spent months in the Fake Fred discord actively looking at ways to harm the brand and reputation of IOG. He targeted my personal pool and it resulted in disruption of the entire cardano network."
Hoskinson's decision to involve the FBI horrified some onlookers, including one other engineer at the company who publicly quit after the incident. They wrote, "I've fucked up pen testing in a major way once. I've seen my colleagues do the same. I didn't realize there was a risk of getting raided by the authorities because of that + saying mean things on the Internet."
GANA Payment hacked for $3.1 million
An attacker stole approximately $3.1 million from the BNB chain-based GANA Payment project. The thief laundered about $1 million of the stolen funds through Tornado Cash shortly after. The attacker was able transfer ownership of the GANA contract to themselves, possibly after a private key leak.
The theft was first observed by crypto sleuth zachxbt. Not long after, the project acknowledged on its Twitter account that "GANA's interaction contract has been targeted by an external attack, resulting in unauthorized asset theft."
Crypto tracking platform DappRadar shuts down, citing financial woes
Amid a month of falling crypto prices, the crypto tracking platform DappRadar has announced it will be shutting down after seven years of operation. "Running a platform of this scale became financially unsustainable in the current environment," the company announced on Twitter.
The company had previously raised several rounds of financing, with a $2.3 million seed round in 2019 and a $5 million Series A in 2021.