3 ms·

I would estimate 95% of those are inside jobs. Very very very few people have the ability and wherewithal to hack a smart contract or bridge, they are extremel

I would estimate 95% of those are inside jobs. Very very very few people have the ability and wherewithal to hack a smart contract or bridge, they are extremely convoluted, ugly and difficult to understand.

cactusplant7374 4y ago
There have to be North Korean hackers whose full time job it is to study these contracts.
PaulHoule 4y ago
"Convoluted, ugly, and difficult to understand" is for crackers like throwing Brer Rabbit into the Brer patch.
- meindnoch 4y ago
  *briar patch https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/briar-patch https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/briar-patch
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    This says it is Br'er https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit
    - rsstack 4y ago
      Br'er / Brother is the name of the rabbit, who is thrown into the briar patch.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  I believe the idiom you’re looking for here when trying to warn them is “singing Ol’ Dan Tucker to a hurricane”
klntsky 4y ago
The code is open source at least part of the time, and the attack vectors are well studied now (at least for EVM-based chains).
bluesign 4y ago
Don’t forget, also very few of those people want to be blackhat.
- w1nst0nsm1th 4y ago
  I read once blackhat and whitehat are just buzz words and most of real hackers (not script kiddies or pentesters) are more like greyhats. That being said, I uncovered once a security hole (in reality it should be called an open door) in the admin password of the now disappeared bbox2, the official router for the belgian company called Proximus. How did I discovered it ? I wanted to watch ip addresses going through the router because I knew the owner of the box was up to something about me... But almost immediatelly I discovered the admin password field was like an 'universal lock', meaning any key could open it... in other word word, any string entered in the password field allowed to access admin pages of the box. After a few google searches, I discovered the software (the OS) was the last version, dating a few years back, and the box producer didn't pushed anymore update, not even security update. (Look at synology NAS scandal where Synology dropped software update for one of its older hardware to have an idea of the kind of thing it means for hardware facing internet access). I immediatly reported the security hole to the federal cybersecurity unit, and after that, kept my mouth shut because there wasn't any way to fix this security issue except replacing the hardware itself. At that time, between 1/6 to 1/4 of routers in belgium were bbox2. I never heard anything from the federal cybersecurity unit (except a mere thank you by mail) or Proximus, but 1 year and a half later, bbox2 where nowhere to be found anymore in belgium. The only thing I have left from that is the mail I sent to the cybersecurity unit with screenshots of the bbox2 admin pages. Why did I report it and shut my mouth without taking credentials for it (that's the kind of things which can launch a career in security field) ? Because it's one thing to try to snoop on an accointance browsing activity, it's another to let a security hole of this magnitude in the open, and a far worse thing to disclose it to the public while there is no fix for it. And that's another level to sell it on dark market or to the chinese or russian ambassy (I'm not in the hacking business but I'm pretty sure they would have dropped a big pile of cash for that). Just to say, Bruxelles is also home of numerous european institutions... Maybe that's why the european parlement voted for mandotary code review for everything facing the internet in EU ?
ethanbond 4y ago
What? This is exactly the type of thing that you'd have highly motivated, highly competent attackers target. It's directly attached to money; it's technically convoluted, ugly, and difficult to understand also for the people programming them; once you steal it, it's yours; the source code is right there; the people who wrote the code are usually available to talk to/inspect their other code; it's not even exactly clear that this is theft per se and there's no jurisdiction that's really going to chase you down for it; so on and so on and so on. I'm not sure you could create a more compelling target if you tried.

cactusplant7374 4y ago

There have to be North Korean hackers whose full time job it is to study these contracts.

PaulHoule 4y ago

"Convoluted, ugly, and difficult to understand" is for crackers like throwing Brer Rabbit into the Brer patch.

meindnoch 4y ago
*briar patch https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/briar-patch https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/briar-patch
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  This says it is Br'er https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit
  - rsstack 4y ago
    Br'er / Brother is the name of the rabbit, who is thrown into the briar patch.
selimthegrim 4y ago
I believe the idiom you’re looking for here when trying to warn them is “singing Ol’ Dan Tucker to a hurricane”

klntsky 4y ago

The code is open source at least part of the time, and the attack vectors are well studied now (at least for EVM-based chains).

bluesign 4y ago

Don’t forget, also very few of those people want to be blackhat.

w1nst0nsm1th 4y ago
I read once blackhat and whitehat are just buzz words and most of real hackers (not script kiddies or pentesters) are more like greyhats. That being said, I uncovered once a security hole (in reality it should be called an open door) in the admin password of the now disappeared bbox2, the official router for the belgian company called Proximus. How did I discovered it ? I wanted to watch ip addresses going through the router because I knew the owner of the box was up to something about me... But almost immediatelly I discovered the admin password field was like an 'universal lock', meaning any key could open it... in other word word, any string entered in the password field allowed to access admin pages of the box. After a few google searches, I discovered the software (the OS) was the last version, dating a few years back, and the box producer didn't pushed anymore update, not even security update. (Look at synology NAS scandal where Synology dropped software update for one of its older hardware to have an idea of the kind of thing it means for hardware facing internet access). I immediatly reported the security hole to the federal cybersecurity unit, and after that, kept my mouth shut because there wasn't any way to fix this security issue except replacing the hardware itself. At that time, between 1/6 to 1/4 of routers in belgium were bbox2. I never heard anything from the federal cybersecurity unit (except a mere thank you by mail) or Proximus, but 1 year and a half later, bbox2 where nowhere to be found anymore in belgium. The only thing I have left from that is the mail I sent to the cybersecurity unit with screenshots of the bbox2 admin pages. Why did I report it and shut my mouth without taking credentials for it (that's the kind of things which can launch a career in security field) ? Because it's one thing to try to snoop on an accointance browsing activity, it's another to let a security hole of this magnitude in the open, and a far worse thing to disclose it to the public while there is no fix for it. And that's another level to sell it on dark market or to the chinese or russian ambassy (I'm not in the hacking business but I'm pretty sure they would have dropped a big pile of cash for that). Just to say, Bruxelles is also home of numerous european institutions... Maybe that's why the european parlement voted for mandotary code review for everything facing the internet in EU ?

ethanbond 4y ago

What? This is exactly the type of thing that you'd have highly motivated, highly competent attackers target. It's directly attached to money; it's technically convoluted, ugly, and difficult to understand also for the people programming them; once you steal it, it's yours; the source code is right there; the people who wrote the code are usually available to talk to/inspect their other code; it's not even exactly clear that this is theft per se and there's no jurisdiction that's really going to chase you down for it; so on and so on and so on. I'm not sure you could create a more compelling target if you tried.