The BNB Smart Chain became victim to a multi-million dollar hacking attempt, as the blockchain was exploited for around $100M. BNB is closely linked to the largest global crypto exchange, Binance. Nonetheless, the hacking news was confirmed by the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao. In response to the attack, BNB halted its operations.
An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC. The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 6, 2022
According to a recent update, the BNB chain has resumed its day-to-day operations. In an announcement, the platform apologized for the inconvenience and irregularity. However, I took ownership of the damage caused by the exploit. As per the announcement, the decentralized chain was able to stop the incident by contacting community validators. The BNB Smart Chain has 26 active validators currently, and a total of 44 validators in different time zones.
📢BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is running ok from 20+ mins ago.
The validators are confirming their status and the community infrastructure are upgrading as well.
— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) October 7, 2022
BNB Chain Will Hold an On-Chain Governance Vote
While confirming the exploit, Changpeng Zhao shared details of the hack. He said that the incident occurred on the cross-chain bridge BSC token hub. This hub is used for cross-chain transfers between BNB and the Binance Smart Chain. He also said that the damage was around $100M which is almost a quarter of the last BNB burn.
The official Twitter handle of the BNB chain pointed out the irregular activity for its users. Later, they investigated and secured the potential vulnerability. As per details, the chain has already frozen around $7 million worth of funds with the assistance of the security and internal teams.
Furthermore, the chain believes that they were able to contain the damage with a swift response and the help of community validators. Now, the chain will organize an on-chain governance vote to decide the next steps. The community will vote on four points.
The first point will ask whether the hacked funds should be frozen or not. In the second point, the chain will ask whether to use BNB auto-burn for covering the hacked funds. Thirdly, the community will decide on a Whitehat program, and lastly, they will vote on the bounty price for catching hackers. The vote will be carried out in the next few days through an upgrade of the BNB Beacon Chain.
Furthermore, the chain has also announced to share the complete details of the attack. This move will help the platform and the overall industry in taking precautionary measures to avoid such vulnerabilities, as DeFi hacks are on a high. Another on-chain governance mechanism will be introduced on the chain to prevent any possible future attacks.
