The attacker (s) who have exploited the cork protocol for millions earlier this year has surfaced again to wash their loot white and to do a surprise donation.
On Wednesday 25 June, Blockchain security company Peckshield Alert, marked renewed activity of wallet addresses bound to exploiters of the decentralized financing platform Cork Protocol. The movements marked the first of the hacker since he ran around $ 12 million from the protocol in May.
The first transaction saw 1,410 ETH (ETH), worth around $ 3.2 million, sent to Tornado Cash, the notorious crypto mixture that was often used by cyber attackers to hide transaction paths. Shortly thereafter, the attacker transferred an extra 3,110 ETH, which means that the total was washed at 4,520 ETH, around $ 11 million at current prices.
In a surprising turn, the attacker also sent a 10 ETH donation to a juicebox campaign that raised money for the legal defense of Tornado -Contant developers, Alexey Pertev and Roman Storm.
Although the reason for the donation remains unclear, it comes when the developers are confronted with legal costs for the use of the mixer by cyber criminals and sanctioned entities. The platform has remained a go-to tool for money laundering of stolen crypto-assets, especially in high-profile exploits.
The latest movements of the Cork Protocol attacker complicate the continuous efforts of the platform to restore the stolen funds. In one rack Cork Protocol released earlier this month and reassured users that it is still working on the recovery of assets, but the transfer of funds to Tornado -Contant money can now further hinder those efforts.
How the hack of the cork protocol happened
The attack on Cork protocol took place on May 28 around 11:39 AM and focused on the WSTETTH: Wise Market of the platform, which led to a loss of approximately 3,761 packed ETH (Wsteth).
According to the Cork team, the attacker operated two advanced meshes in the code of the protocol to take off the hack and implemented a malignant hook that circumvented the usual validation controls.
When draining the funds, decentralized exchange aggregator 1 inch was used to exchange the assets, making them more difficult to trace or restore them.
Cork Protocol says that it continues to collaborate with security partners to tackle the fall -out and to tighten the security measures to protect against similar attacks in the future.
