• Wormhole Bridge Exploit: $140M Worth Stolen Assets Recovered
• A group of white hats, along with two crypto firms, launched a “counter-exploit” against the malicious entities and clawed back a portion of stolen assets
• Oasis received an order from the High Court of England and Wales to take all necessary steps to retrieve assets involved with the exploit.
Wormhole Bridge Exploit
The Solana-based Wormhole Bridge was hacked for $325 million after the attacker managed to exploit a security flaw, making it one of the largest exploits in crypto history.
Counter-Exploit Launch
A group of white hats, along with two crypto firms (Oasis and Web3 infrastructure company Jump Crypto), launched a „counter-exploit“ against the malicious entities and clawed back a portion of stolen assets tied to the exploit. The vulnerability was also patched. Wormhole offered a $10 million bug bounty and white hat agreement to the attackers in exchange for returning the funds, which never transpired. This kicked off an investigation with the help of both government and private resources.
Retrieving Assets
Fast forward to 21st February, Oasis received an order from the High Court of England and Wales to take all necessary steps to retrieve assets involved with the wallet address associated with the exploit. According to a report, $140 million worth of assets were successfully recovered following a counter-exploit initiated via Oasis Multisig, and returned to a court-authorized third party.
Security Flaw Patched
The counter exploit was only possible with approval from multiple parties such as those who held wallets associated with stolen funds as well as law enforcement agencies involved in tracking down attackers. By patching up security flaws on its platform, Wormhole reassured its users that their funds are safe.
Conclusion
This successful counter-exploit sets an example for other exchanges on how they should handle such situations while reaffirming that there is still hope when it comes recovering lost or stolen funds in cryptocurrency markets.