Opentensor Foundation (OTF), a driving force behind Bittensor, a pioneering mining network that redefines how artificial intelligence (AI) is created, shared, and valued, has lately warned its community to create new wallets and transfer their funds to avoid compromise. This post-mortem report follows an $8 million security attack detection on several network wallets.
Bittensor Confirms Exploits
On July 2, some undisclosed attackers transferred out of several wallets into their wallets. As such, Opentensor Foundation detected the abnormality in the transfer volume surge and immediately activated a safe mode to stop further nodes from connecting to the network.
As per the reports, the attack’s origin was traced to PyPi Package Manager version 6.12.2, where an unauthorized package was uploaded, posing a risk to user security. This deceptive package, masquerading as a Bittensor package, contained code to steal encrypted coldkey details. After a user downloads this package and decrypts their coldkeys, the decoded bytecode is transmitted to a remote server under the attacker’s control.
Although some users who did not use a third-party party application were affected, the attack did not in any way affect the blockchain or Subtensor code. Meaning, the Bittensor protocol is safe and secure.
Opentensor Foundation to Ensure Continuous Safety
In the meantime, the OTF team has deleted the harmful 6.12.2 package from the PyPi Package Manager repository. Also, the team is working diligently to prevent any future attacks. The foundation will partner with exchanges to identify the attacker and potentially recover the funds.
Operations on the Bittensor blockchain will resume, as the community is advised to avoid performing transfers until told otherwise. Going forward, the foundation has decided to verify packages uploaded to PyPi to prevent malicious code, and constantly perform security audits.
Recall that in April, Bittensor witnessed its prices increase by 700% in just two months, making its TAO tokens hit an all-time high of $759. This quick rise spotlights an increasing interest in AI and its potential to revolutionize the world.
Rising Exploits in the Crypto Space
It is crucial to mention that multiple exploits have been reported in the past few months, and the digital asset community is worried about the security of their funds. As covered earlier by TheCoinRise, KyberSwap, a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) protocol, lost $47 million, including $20.7 million on Arbitrum, $15 million on Optimism, $7 million on Ethereum, $3 million on Polygon, and $2 million on Coinbase’s Base.
Similarly, FixedFloat, a digital asset trading platform saw about $26 million drained from its platform, attracting the crypto community’s attention. While there were no clear explanations regarding the attack, the crypto exchange’s team did everything to eliminate possible vulnerabilities.
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