Hacker of the multichain token bridge Allbridge returned the biggest part of the $573,000 stolen funds as a form of acceptance of a ‘white hat bounty’ according to an April 3 disclosure by the Allbridge team.
Update on the exploit
1/ Our team was contacted by the owner of https://t.co/EW1uxXBQpD.
1500 BNB was returned to our team. The remaining funds will be considered a white hat bounty to this person.
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 3, 2023
Allbridge revealed that it received a message from an individual, and subsequently received 1,500 BNB worth around $465,500.
Allbridge maintained that the remaining funds would be considered as a white hat bounty to the hacker.
The DeFi platform team further added that all the received BNB have been converted to the stablecoin Binance USD, and would be used as compensation.
Recall that blockchain security firm Peckshield alerted Allbridge on April 1 that its BNB Chain pools swap was being attacked and manipulated by someone acting as a liquidity provider.
The @Allbridge_io hack results in the loss of ~$570K (282,889 BUSD + 290,868 USDT). The root cause appears to be the manipulation of pool's swap price. The actor plays dual roles of acting as LP and swapper to manipulate the price and then drain the pool funds. https://t.co/JiPwVHsaCi pic.twitter.com/FY2wwA6IHm
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) April 2, 2023
Meanwhile, Allbridge disclosed that there is a second address used for the same exploit that currently contains 0.97 BNB, which is valued at approximately $300.
3/ There was a different address involved in the hack that used the same exploit technique but did not contact us.
Address: https://t.co/BSy4sTjfA6
We ask the second exploiter to reach out and discuss the return.
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 3, 2023
It maintains that it has requested the exploiter to reach and discuss swift return of the fund.
Road Towards Recovering Stolen Digital Assets
Following the attack on Allbridge’s core liquidity pools on April 1, the Allbridge team promptly extended an olive branch by offering the hacker a bounty on April 2.
Please contact us via the official channels (Twitter/Telegram) or send a message through tx, so we can consider this a white hat hack and discuss the bounty in exchange for returning the funds.
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 2, 2023
In the same vein, Allbridge maintained that it is hot on the trail of the stolen funds, affirming that an investigation into the hacking incident had started and partnerships are being made with law enforcement agents to identify the perpetrator.
Liquidity pools update
1/ Our investigation into the hacking incident continues. We are working together with our partners and law enforcement to uncover the identity of the hacker. In addition, we have announced a white hat bounty in exchange for recovering the stolen assets.
— Allbridge (@Allbridge_io) April 3, 2023
Meanwhile, Binance and its smartchain is not taking a backseat as it subsequently revealed on April 2 that the hacker behind the Allbridge attack has been identified through on-chain analysis. It further added that AvengerDAO played a key role in the process.
While the successful recovery of the biggest part of the funds by Allbridge is a welcome development, concerted efforts should be made towards putting a stop to bounty for hackers.
Providing bounty to hackers will not only embolden more hackers to spring up, but it will likely increase the number of attacks within the crypto space.
