Cryptic Capers: DeFi's November Turbulence

On the eventful day of November 30th, Florence Finance found itself ensnared in the web of a cyber onslaught, as revealed by the vigilant blockchain security firm, PeckShield.

The assail, bearing the ominous moniker "address poisoning," resulted in the protocol purportedly hemorrhaging $1.45 million in USDC. As the digital ink dries on this narrative, a veil of mystery shrouds the details of the attack, with the Florence Finance X (Twitter) feed and Telegram channel maintaining an eerie silence.

#PeckShieldAlert #FlorenceFinance fell victim to a #AddressPoisoning scam, resulting in a loss of ~$1.45M $USDC.
Intended address: 0xB087cfa70498175a1579104a1E1240Bd947f5870
Phishing address: 0xB087269DE7ba93d0Db2e12ff164D60F0b3675870 pic.twitter.com/x1BJ77lhFv

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 30, 2023

Manipulative Address Routing

Delving into the intricacies of this cryptic caper, PeckShield's report unveils a malevolent tactic—sending the transaction astray towards a deceptive address instead of its rightful destination.

This incident serves as a cautionary tale, a classic ploy where miscreants artfully fashion an address that mirrors one previously graced by the victim's funds. The addresses, akin in their commencement and culmination, bewitch the unwitting victim into a financial misstep, lured by the familiarity without a discerning gaze at the entire address.

The dark arts of the attackers involve the utilization of an address generator, a tool to conjure an address so eerily similar to the target's wallet digits that differentiation becomes an exercise in futility. A trifling sum of cryptocurrency is then dispatched from this newly spawned, doppelgänger address wallet to the victim's wallet, tainting the transaction annals.

The unsuspecting victim, ensnared in a web of confusion, inadvertently copies the tainted address from the transaction history, overlooking their own meticulous records. Subsequently, funds are sent forthrightly into the waiting maw of the hacker's wallet.

In the annals of deception, reports surface of nefarious actors exploiting Ethereum's 'Create2' function to circumvent wallet security sentinels, thus paving the way for the contamination of addresses. A staggering tally emerges—around $60 million in cryptocurrency pilfered from the coffers of nearly 100,000 accounts over a half-year horizon.

Shifting the lens to Florence Finance, a bastion of DeFi prowess nestled within the Arbitrum realm, offering a gateway for users to borrow digital assets against the tangible collateral of real-world assets. The documentation unveils an intricate dance of stablecoin commitments, funding loans to brick-and-mortar businesses, with the ensuing real-world yield cascading back to the patrons of the stablecoin fund.

Significant Period of DeFi Vulnerabilities

November, it seems, is a cauldron of volatility for the realm of decentralized finance and crypto marauders. A crescendo of chaos on the 30th reveals PeckShield's siren call, warning of the Uranium Finance attacker orchestrating an intricate ballet of fund transfers.

#PeckShieldAlert #UraniumFinance exploiter-labeled address has transferred 800 $ETH (~$1.6M) to #tornadocash pic.twitter.com/XkqYV83YwX

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 30, 2023

The De.Fi Yield Rekt Database stands as a testament to a month laden with losses, a symphony of misfortune conducting the forfeiture of millions in cryptocurrency assets. KyberSwap, an unwilling participant, suffered a $45 million blow in a flash loan attack on the 23rd of November, while HTX's coffers bled $21 million due to an access control exploit a day prior.

The exploits did not discriminate, as Heco Bridge succumbed to an $86 million ambush this month, and the haunting echoes of a $2 million loss reverberated through Onyx Protocol, a victim of a flash loan attack. Such is the turbulent ballet of November, where DeFi's vulnerabilities are laid bare, and crypto exploits carve their indelible mark on the landscape of digital finance.

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