**News Flash: NEAR Protocol's Major Vulnerability Quietly Fixed**

Blockchain security firm Zellic recently revealed a critical vulnerability in the NEAR protocol that could have crashed every node on the network. Dubbed the "Web3 Ping of Death," this flaw was discovered in NEAR's peer-to-peer networking protocol for validator nodes. The issue, which involved signature verification errors, was patched in January after Zellic disclosed it through HackenProof's bug bounty platform. NEAR rewarded Zellic with $150,000 for the discovery. Despite the potential for disaster, the network remained online and unaffected by any attacks during the patching period. Other blockchains, like Arbitrum and Solana, have not been as fortunate, experiencing significant downtime due to similar issues.