Shibarium bridge suffers a "complex" flash loan attack, hackers steal $2.4 million in assets.

The cross-chain bridge connecting the Shibarium Layer 2 network and Ethereum was hit by a carefully orchestrated flash loan attack on September 12, resulting in approximately $2.4 million in asset losses. The Shiba Inu (SHIB) development team urgently froze some network functions and locked 4.6 million BONE tokens used by the hacker to prevent further malicious actions.

Attack Details: Hacker Takes Control of Validator

According to official statements, the attacker borrowed 4.6 million BONE (Shibarium governance Token) through Flash Loans and obtained 10 out of 12 validator signing keys, controlling more than two-thirds of the majority authority.

Subsequently, hackers exploited this permission to steal approximately 224.57 ETH and about 92.6 billion SHIB from the Shibarium bridge contract, with a total value of around 2.4 million USD, and transferred it to the wallet address under their control.

Response Measures of the Development Team

To prevent further losses, Shiba Inu developers immediately:

1. Suspend staking and unstaking functions

2. Lock the BONE tokens borrowed by the hacker (affected by the unbonding delay)

3. Contact law enforcement and indicate that a reward will be offered if the hacker returns the funds.

4. Invite security companies such as Hexens, Seal 911, and PeckShield to conduct an investigation.

In addition, the hackers obtained tokens worth about 700,000 USD of K9 (KNINE), but when they attempted to sell it, K9 Finance DAO blacklisted their address, making the tokens impossible to cash out.

BONE and SHIB prices fluctuate wildly

According to data from The Block, after the attack, the price of BONE skyrocketed from $0.165 to $0.294 within an hour, then fell back to $0.202.

The price of SHIB has increased by 4.5% in the past 24 hours, indicating that the market's reaction to the event is relatively limited.

Developer: Attack or has been planned for months

Shiba Inu core developer Kaal Dhairya stated on X (formerly Twitter) that this flash loan attack was "extremely complex" and may have been planned for several months. He emphasized that the team will continue to enhance network security and urged the community to remain vigilant.

Conclusion

The recent flash loan attack on the Shibarium bridge highlights the security risks of cross-chain bridges in the crypto ecosystem. Although the development team quickly took action to limit losses, the incident still impacted the market sentiment for BONE and SHIB. With the strengthening of security audits and defense mechanisms, how to balance decentralization and security in the future will be a core issue that the entire DeFi sector must face.