North Korea links suspected in $5 million breach of Tapioca DAO

Tapioca DAO, a decentralized wealth marketplace protocol connected LayerZero, has suffered a information breach that crashed its autochthonal TAP token by much than 90%.

On Oct. 18, blockchain information steadfast Cyvers revealed that the protocol’s deployer code was compromised, resulting successful unauthorized changes to the vesting contract’s ownership.

The attack

The attacker exploited this vulnerability to retreat much than 21 cardinal TAP tokens utilizing an exigency rescue function. The tokens were past swapped for 591 ETH, which caused TAP to plummet by 93%.

Further probe revealed that the attacker utilized Stargate to span immoderate of the stolen assets to the BNB Chain. At the clip of writing, the suspicious code holds astir $4.7 cardinal worthy of BSC-USD and USDC connected the BNB Chain.

Meanwhile, Cyvers estimates the full losses from the breach to beryllium astir $16.9 million. However, Web3 information auditor Hacken suggested the fig could beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic $38 million.

In the aftermath of the attack, Hacken warned users of phishing attempts. Malicious actors are reportedly spreading fake links that committedness refunds portion urging users to revoke their accounts.

The information steadfast warned:

“We’ve noticed fake accounts impersonating Tapioca_dao posting phishing links nether this thread. Please bash not interact with immoderate suspicious links oregon messages claiming to beryllium from Tapioca. Stay vigilant and support your assets.”

Tapioca DAO, which is focused connected gathering a DeFi wealth marketplace and stablecoin connected Layer Zero’s cross-chain infrastructure, has yet to contented a nationalist connection regarding the breach arsenic of property time.

North Korea connection

On Telegram, on-chain researcher ZachXBT speculated that the Tapioca DAO hack could beryllium linked to malware downloaded by a squad member.

He pointed retired that this exploit whitethorn beryllium related to a bid of caller hacks targeting projects similar Nexera, Concentric, Masa, SpaceCatch, Reach, Serenity Shield, and MurAll.

ZachXBT pointed retired that these attacks are portion of a larger cognition involving fake occupation scams, perchance connected to state-sponsored threat actors from North Korea. However, determination is nary conclusive grounds linking the Tapioca breach to North Korea arsenic of property time.

The station North Korea links suspected successful $5 cardinal breach of Tapioca DAO appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.