{"id":7472,"date":"2022-02-16T13:18:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T13:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostingseekers.com\/blog\/?p=7472"},"modified":"2025-03-06T11:57:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T11:57:46","slug":"hacker-chose-2m-bug-bounty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostingseekers.com\/blog\/hacker-chose-2m-bug-bounty\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacker Chose $2M bug bounty over unlimited \u2018Ether\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u2018grey-hat\u2019 hacker made a stylish move by choosing $2M bug bounty.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hacker figured out the way to trick Ethereum scaling solution and Optimize it into effectively printing unlimited Ether. This incident took place earlier this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jay Freeman, a software engineer (who uses the online name \u2013 Saurik), didn\u2019t make a huge amount by exploiting the bug. Instead, he reported the issue to Optimism\u2019s dev team, who in return paid him a $2 million bug bounty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Freeman is well known for his work on Cydia, an app store for jailbroken iPhones. Recently, he took a keen interest in blockchain and has been looking for bugs in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

As per the breakdown on Jay\u2019s website, he found a glitch while he was looking into so-called \u201cnano payment protocols.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of these protocols is Optimism. It allows users to send a small amount of crypto with very few transaction fees, although with security tradeoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, blockchain bridges like Wormhole, the platform that has several alternative Ether token exists only on Optimism\u2019s network.<\/span><\/p>\n

Users always take a wise step by first locking their ETH inside a smart contract as collateral to receive their tokens, which is actually double as IOUs. These tokens can easily be transacted quicker and cheaper as compared to on-chain transactions. This makes Optimism a potential \u201clayer 2\u201d (L2), solution for scaling Ethereum.<\/span><\/p>\n

In case Optimism users wish to cash out their IOUs, they must wait one week, before their \u201creal\u201d Ether token gets released.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Printing Fake Ether for Real Ether By Hackers is dangerous :<\/b><\/h2>\n

Freeman discovered a glitch in one part of the Optimism code, which indicates a smart contract to delete itself and in return give the related Ether to the sender.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cSELFDESTRUCT\u201d function on Optimism returned crypto to the sender but kept related off-chain Ether IOUs.<\/span><\/p>\n

This could have easily been tricking smart contracts into looping through the glitch.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ether created by the bug was counterfeit, but Freeman suggested it could cause havoc to the crypto ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

These security bugs are also known as overflow bugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you enjoyed reading this news, you are surely going to cherish these too \u2013<\/em><\/h4>\n