Shiba Inu Developers Respond To $4 Million Exploit With Detailed Update

Following a significant exploit that compromised its Shibarium bridge, developers behind Shiba Inu (SHIB) have released a detailed update outlining their response to the incident. 

Shibarium Team Implements New Security Measures

According to a post-mortem report, the malicious attack involved a perpetrator submitting three fraudulent checkpoints to Shibarium’s Ethereum mainnet contracts, disrupting the continuity between Heimdall’s local state and the on-chain state. 

After the attack was detected, Shibarium’s Kaal Dhairya announced on social media platform X (previously twitter) that authorities had been alerted, while also expressing a willingness to negotiate with the attacker in exchange for the return of the stolen funds. 

However, no agreement was reached, and the attacker has since moved the stolen assets, leaving the Shibarium team to focus on recovery and security enhancements for the platform.

In light of this, Heimdall intentionally halted operations, pausing legitimate checkpoint submissions to prevent further damage. They also described the attacker’s method, which included a short-lived stake amplification strategy through a 4.6 million BONE delegation. 

This tactic allowed the attacker to cross operational thresholds and attempt to gain unauthorized control over the system. To address these issues, the Shibarium team organized their response into multiple overlapping workstreams, functioning around the clock in collaboration with Hexens.io, an independent reviewer. 

Their approach included daily stand-ups, continuous monitoring of changes, and strict separation of duties among team members responsible for infrastructure, contracts, validator operations, and testnets. 

This aimed to eliminate any single points of failure, employing hardware custody for keys and ensuring every critical change was rehearsed off-chain or on testnets prior to implementation.

Shiba Inu Dev’s Strategy To Compensate Affected Users 

As part of their actions, Shiba Inu devs introduced a rescue method in the StakeManager to recover at-risk BONE tokens. They executed the AdminConsumeLegacyBound function to clean up legacy unbond states associated with the attacker’s contract. 

This response verified that the staking ledger updates were successful, ultimately rescuing the 4.6 million BONE and removing the malicious delegation. Looking ahead, Shiba Inu developers detailed their plans for the near future, which include implementing blacklisting measures in the Plasma Bridge. 

These controls aim to prevent malicious actors from initiating or completing bridge transactions. Once these measures are in place and thoroughly verified, the team intends to restore full bridge functionality.

In addition to these technical updates, Shiba Inu developers are designing a comprehensive plan to ensure that affected users are made whole. 

This plan will incorporate gating, phased limits, and coordination with partners to facilitate safe bridging and withdrawals. Specific details will be communicated only when it is deemed secure to do so.

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