From Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) announced on Twitter yesterday that they solved a major vulnerability of the network earlier this month. This vulnerability had the potential to compromise at least $24 billion worth of MATIC tokens. Fortunately, the Polygon team was notified in time and were able to resolve the issue without any issues.
White Hat Hackers
Polygon discovered the big problems after white hat hackers through the blockchain security company and bug bounty platform Immunefi informed the team. This already happened at the beginning of December. Such hackers are not out to abuse vulnerabilities, but to expose them so that there are no nasty consequences.
There was clearly a very urgent situation. The majority of the total supply of MATIC tokens was possibly at risk. Until recently, at least 9.27 billion MATIC was still extremely vulnerable, while the total supply is only 10 billion.
Bug fixed
The bug has been fixed for a few weeks now, but the Polygon team is only now announcing the approach of the update that has fixed the vulnerability. On December 5, a so-called “Emergency Bor Update” took place.
All you need to know about the recent Polygon network update.
✅A security partner discovered a vulnerability
✅Fix was immediately introduced
✅Validators upgraded the network
✅No material harm to the protocol/end-users
✅White hats were paid a bounty https://t.co/oyDkvohg33— Polygon | $MATIC ???? (@0xPolygon) December 29, 2021
In addition, Polygon discloses that a malicious hacker has been able to steal 801,601 MATIC. These tokens have a market value of just over $2 million.
Fortunately, Polygon was working with Immunefi to come up with a solution in a very short time. In less than 24 hours after the vulnerability was discovered, the bug fix already rolled out on it main net from Polygon. It is also remarkable that the roll-out of this fix could take place without having to take the network off the air.
From white hat hackers who tracked down the bug both have a hefty reward received from Polygon. They will receive $2.2 million respectively stablecoins and distributed $1.27 million in MATIC tokens.
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