Cryptocurrency

"Bitcoin Ordinals extension UniSat Wallet hit by 'large number' of double-spend attacks"

2023-04-23 [vendor] UniSat is immediately [chain] bitcoin
Primary Source ↗
Blockchain(s) Bitcoin

Incident Details

Over on the Bitcoin blockchain, people are abuzz over the launch of “BRC-20”: a similar concept to the ERC-20 token on Ethereum that allows people to create their own tokens. The standard, which first emerged in early March, is built atop the controversial Ordinals inscription technique that was developed in January. Coins including $ORDI, $PEPE, and $MEME have been created on a blockchain that previously only supported the Bitcoin token.Not everything has gone smoothly, though. As developers rushed to release wallets to support these new tokens, the UniSat wallet claimed to be the first. However, shortly after it launched, the developers made the Chrome extension inaccessible. They later revealed that the code had contained a vulnerability that exposed it to double-spend attacks. “Currently, we have preliminary investigation results, and out of all 383 transactions, 70 transactions have been identified as affected,” they wrote.It’s not yet clear how much was stolen, but the UniSat team promised to compensate affected users. They later tweeted that they had determined the identity of the thief, though the funds have not yet been returned.

Technical Details

Initial Attack Vector
Smart contract exploit / hack
Vendor / Product
UniSat is immediately

Timeline

  1. 2023-04-23 Breach occurred
  2. 2023-04-23 Publicly disclosed