The popular privacy-centric virtual currency, Monero (XMR-USD), had a bug that caused the Altex exchange to suffer major losses. The wallet was exposed to a relatively small cybersecurity vulnerability allowing the theft from the cryptocurrency exchange.
Monero’s open source base gives easy access to fraudsters
A researcher who tracked down this bug stated that when considered on the parameters of severity, the bug ranked nine out of 10. The technology outlet revealed that the inventive hacking created false transaction data by copying a simple line of code from the code base of Monero. This is an open-source base that can be accessed easily online. Once accessed, the fraudsters manipulate the cryptocurrency amount shown in the wallet the way they want by multiplying the amount displayed on the Monero wallet using the copied code.
Even though the bug does not directly facilitate immediate access to XMR, the hackers can take this as a path to attack the cryptocurrency exchange. There is also a possibility of malicious users tricking customer support on the exchange and getting them to credit Monero into their account which in reality does not exist at all. The report says that a fraudster can bluff around 8,000 times the value of the original transaction.
Altex Exchange Victimized by the Bug
The issue was quickly resolved for Monero, fortunately. However, the Altex exchange, a lesser-known platform recently posted on Twitter that the hackers used a security flaw on its platform and took advantage of it. According to the Altex team, ”We have been experiencing issues with two of our listed coins (they were still affected by the double-counting bug recently found in the Monero codebase, even after updating the software). That bug caused a big loss in coins for the exchange and we have put our main currency under maintenance so the people who exploited the bug can no longer withdraw.”
The team further added that it is suspending trading for some time now and will update users through Twitter. The exchange said that they are trying to bring the situation to normalcy as fast as possible.