A DeFi Protocol “Under An Attack”, Urges Users to Stay Away
An Ethereum-based Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol, Balancer, frontend is “under an attack,” that is now under investigation. When Balancer discovered the issue, it requested the users to “not interact with balancer UI until further notice.” However, the crypto stolen from the platform is not officially revealed.
The balancer frontend is under an attack. The issue is currently under investigation. Please do NOT interact with the balancer UI until further notice!
— Balancer (@Balancer) September 19, 2023
DeFi Protocol Frontend “Under Attack”
The DeFi protocol, Balancer, shared on X (formerly Twitter) post on September 19, 2023, and notified its community. It urges its users to not interact with Balancer’s protocol until official further notice.
Moreover, the DeFi protocol shared that the details of the attack are “under investigation.” Till now, it has not officially stated whether “user funds were affected.” Reportedly, its contributor Cosme Fulanito confirmed that Balancer’s vault remains “100% fine.”
Over the following attack, the blockchain security firms such as PeckShield and blockchain analyst ZachXBT however estimated “around $238,000 in crypto has been stolen so far.”
#PeckShieldAlert @Balancer has reported that its frontend under an attack, ~$238k worth of cryptos were stolen https://t.co/aAaj0Xqery pic.twitter.com/YDIjfnNYM4
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 20, 2023
On the other hand, some of the Balancer users have been reporting that when they interact with the website, they are “being prompted to approve a malicious contract that drains users’ wallets.”
According to a media outlet report, an industry expert further explained what other users have reportedly experienced, “If you open the website it asks you to change the chain, where you hold the most amount of money. After that scam transaction is sent, and after confirmation money is gone. Don’t open the website!!!”
Meanwhile, if the users attempting to access the Balancer website are met with “a warning sign.”
Is This the First Attack on Balancer?
No, this is the second attack on this Ethereum-based DeFi protocol in less than a month. As of late August, Balancer warned of “a critical vulnerability.” It stated that it is “suffering an estimated $2 Million exploit related to the vulnerability just days later.”
The DeFi protocol’s team posted on X on August 27, 2023, that “Balancer is aware of an exploit related to the vulnerability below.” It further added that while mitigation measures taken in recent days had drastically reduced risks, affected pools could not be paused. It also advised that “To prevent further exploits, users must withdraw from affected LPs.”
As stated in previous announcements, the Balancer DAO was recently notified of an exploit that affected some pools on the DEX.
— Balancer (@Balancer) August 30, 2023
Later on August 30, 2023, Balancer shared a long-tailed X-post in which it wrote “However, on August 27th, 5 days after the disclosure, malicious actors managed to exploit the pool vulnerability on a portion of funds that remained in affected pools across the Balancer and Beethoven X protocols.”
It further mentioned that “users can be assured that the Balancer and Beethoven X communities are taking known measures to thoroughly investigate the situation.”
