A crypto hacker launched an attack on the Solana blockchain that resulted in the draining of 7,767 wallets.
Hackers have drained thousands of Solana wallets in an ongoing attack. Solana became the target of a malicious crypto hacker who has drained thousands of wallets from accounts that are allegedly internet-connected wallets.
The series of attacks on the users has just recently unfolded today, August 3, from an unknown actor.
Solana Hack
Solana's hack, as reported by Cryptobriefing, has confirmed 7,767 wallets that have been compromised and drained.
However, the crypto tracker used by the blockchain security company SlowMist discovered that more than 8,000 wallets had been emptied of their contents. It is anticipated that the total loss up to this point is somewhere about $8 million.
Solana went on to Twitter to confirm the incident after numerous users complained and detected the problem, and stated that they are currently investigating the drained wallets.
Solana stated, "Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana."
Additionally, their team added that there is no evidence to suggest that hardware wallets are affected by this issue.
Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana. There is no evidence hardware wallets are impacted.
— Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) August 3, 2022
This thread will be updated as new information becomes available.
This cryptocurrency hack affected numerous wallets, including Phantom and Slope, which Solana stated were affected in both mobile and extension versions.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, according to Solana, "Engineers are currently working with multiple security researchers and ecosystem teams to identify the root cause of the exploit, which is unknown at this time."
The network stated there is no evidence hardware wallets have been impacted and users are strongly encouraged to use hardware wallets.
They also warned the affected users to not reuse their seed phrase on a hardware wallet, saying that wallets that have been drained should be treated as compromised and abandoned.
The blockchain network encourages users to create a new seed phrase.
Solana's Crypto Hacker
The attack, which appears to be restricted to Solana, has only targeted "hot" wallets, or wallets that are constantly linked to the internet and allow users to store and send tokens with ease.
According to TechCrunch, the Solana cryptocurrency hacker targets wallets that have been dormant for less than six months and steals both native tokens (SOL) and SPL tokens (USDC).
Other victims have come forward and claimed that their USDC has also been drained on social media. Phantom, Slope, Solflare, and TrustWallet are among the other wallets that have been affected by the hack.
Phantom has stated that it is collaborating closely with other teams in order to better understand the vulnerability discovered in Solana. Although the team does not view that this is an issue that is unique to Phantom,
On the other hand, Slope stated that they are actively working to remedy the situation and resolve it as quickly as possible and to the best of their abilities.
Since the root cause of the breach is still unknown, there could be several reasons and speculations as to how the attacker managed to drain thousands of wallets in a single breach.
Avalanche blockchain founder, Emin Gün Sirer, said that based on how the hack happened, in the event that the transactions were properly signed, the vulnerability could be a supply chain attack that managed to steal users' private keys.
Some others have also speculated that the hack might have led to a widespread compromise of private keys.
