Solana Hackers Drain Millions of Dollars from Thousands of Wallets

In the most recent crypto-heist, the Solana blockchain has fallen victim to an attack.

Hackers targeted the Solana network, gaining access to at least 8,000 internet-connected "hot" wallets. The result is an estimated $8 million worth of SOL, SPL, and USDC crypto tokens stolen straight from users’ wallets. The exact cause of the hack is still under investigation.

This hack is still ongoing so it’s important to stay informed about the most recent updates. Solana’s Update official Twitter account is the best source to stay informed.

According to Solana’s Twitter account, engineers from several ecosystems along with ongoing audits from various security firms are investigating the attack on the Solana blockchain.

So far they have discovered that the addresses affected by this hack were either created, imported, or used in Slope mobile wallet apps. 

Furthermore, Solana's official status account comforted the community stating that Solana's protocol and its cryptography were not compromised.

It appears that the attacker has found a way to initiate and approve transactions from within users' wallets.

Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, went into more detail on his Twitter account, suggesting the hack seems like a supply chain attack that targeted both iOS and Android applications.

In this type of attack, hackers search for unsecured network protocols, server infrastructures, and other weak points in codes. From there, they can change the source code and even hide malware within it.

Usually, vendors are unaware that their apps are infected with this malicious code so they make it available to the public. Unfortunately, end users end up being the primary victim since they trust the app to function securely, as they do on a daily basis. 

Joe McCann breaks down a supply chain attack in his recent Tweet regarding the Solana hack.

There are at least four Solana addresses (1, 2, 3, 4) that have been linked to the attack which can be viewed on Solana FM, the network’s explorer.

This isn’t the first time Solana has been hit by hackers. Both bot spam and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have been carried out on the network previously.

If you have assets stored within a Solana-based wallet, it is highly recommended that you disconnect your wallet from all websites. Since the attack has only affected software wallets, you should also consider transferring your assets to a hardware wallet if you have one.

Ledger confirmed in a Tweet that this hack did not affect Ledger Solana wallets connected to phantom.

If you don’t have a hardware wallet and you want to take immediate action to potentially avoid falling victim to this unfortunate hack, then make sure you do not connect your wallet to any websites for the time being.