Shibarium and Monero attacked, highlighting network vulnerabilities

This weekend, two attacks on popular blockchain networks reminded users of the risks associated with these technologies.

For example, the blockchain bridge Shibarium, which connects the namesake chain with the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, was exploited in a flash loan attack, helping the attacker steal around $2.4 million in crypto assets. The Shibarium blockchain powers the ecosystem of the popular memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Kaal Dhairya, one of the developers of this ecosystem, said the attack "was probably planned for months" and allowed the attacker to gain access to validator signing keys, achieve majority validator power, and sign a malicious state to drain assets from the bridge.

In response, Shiba Inu developers said they paused staking on the network "as a precaution" and moved stake manager funds out of the proxy into a hardware wallet controlled by their trusted 6/9 multisignature wallet, which requires at least six signatures to confirm a transaction.

"Once secure key transfers are completed and validator control integrity is verified, the stake manager funds will be restored in full," Dhairya said, adding that at the time, the developers still didn’t know whether the breach originated from a server or a developer machine.

Traditionally, for the crypto space, while also working with other investigators and authorities to track the criminal and recover the funds, Shiba Inu developers said they’re open to "negotiating in good faith with the attacker."

Meanwhile, a separate blockchain ecosystem, Monero (XMR), which powers the most popular privacy coin, continues to struggle with recent vulnerabilities. This time, the blockchain experienced a reorganization (reorg), which affected 18 blocks on the chain and invalidated around 117 already accepted XMR transactions.

"This is the largest reorg in Monero’s history. Unsurprisingly, ***ic is looking for any way to stay relevant and to stop the bleeding of their dumping price," podcaster @xenumonero said.

As reported by Cybernews.com, Qubic (QUBIC), which positions itself as "a decentralized network where unmatched scalable tech meets AGI," is targeting the computational power of the Monero network in order to gain control over the network.

Yu Xian, founder of crypto security firm SlowMist, urged the Monero community to take this issue seriously, otherwise "this Sword of Damocles will always hang over Monero’s head."

Monero developers are already investigating possible solutions that could help protect the network. In either case, XMR is up 5% for the day at the time of writing.