Altcoin News: Hacker Stole More Than 2 Million EOS Due to Block Builder Error

February 26, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

An anonymous hacker managed to transfer 2.09 million EOS ($7.7 million) from a hacked account. Presumably, this was a consequence of the mistake made by the new manufacturer of EOS units.

This became known from the message in the Telegram of the manufacturer of EOS EOS42 units. EOS Blockchain has a feature that requires block makers to blacklist hacked accounts. All active block manufacturers (of which there are always 21) must blacklist a specific account in order for the blacklist to function properly. On February 22, a new producer of EOS blocks called games.eos did not seem to update the blacklist of EOS core network accounts, and the hacker managed to withdraw funds from the account.

Subsequently, the security group of the Huobi exchange — using data from the blacklist from the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF) — discovered assets derived from the hacked EOS account on Huobi. The exchange subsequently froze the accounts and related assets.

After the incident, the producer of EOS42 units made a new proposal, proposing to invalidate the keys of the blacklisted accounts, instead of giving veto power to every producer of the blocks in the EOS network. According to EOS42, the option to reset the keys is more effective than the “idle” blacklist, and at the same time allows you to save the account and return it to the rightful owner.

There cannot be more than twenty-one producers of blocks, and the list may change as the voting process is constantly underway. According to EOS24, several accounts have been blacklisted on the basis of ECAF orders.

EOS, today the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was launched in June 2018 after completion of the sale of tokens (ICO) worth $4 billion. The launch of the network was marked by problems that the community has struggled with for several months. One of the most notorious events was the blocking of 7 accounts by manufacturers of EOS blocks.

Author: Marko Vidrih