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- Crypto platform Morpho Labs avoids $2.6M exploit with help from white hat hacker c0ffeebabe.eth after a faulty update.
- A frontend update on Morpho Blue created a vulnerability, risking $2.6M in potential losses.
- Morpho Labs swiftly rolled back the update, ensuring all funds remained safe and unaffected.
Morpho Labs a decentralized finance (defi) platform had a close call avoid an exploit reportedly due to a bad frontend update. This happened on April 10th and likely could lead to a $2.6 million loss. But it was barely prevented by an action of a white hat hacker evidenced by the alias, c0ffeebabe.eth.
The exploit emerged after a routine update to Morpho Blue, the protocol’s app, aimed at improving transaction flow. While the intention was to optimize the app, the update inadvertently created a vulnerability that hackers could exploit.
On April 11, the blockchain security firm PeckShield raised awareness of the exploit, stating that it attacked one of the addresses related to the protocol. If the vulnerability had not been intercepted in time, this could have been a major blow to the platform’s financial position.
MEV Operator Stops Exploit
Fortunately, a white hat MEV operator, c0ffeebabe.eth, intervened and averted the malicious act. The malicious transaction was front-ran by c0ffeebabe.eth, however, the person is famous for using Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bots in an ethical way. This way, the operator could freeze the money, and the hacking attempt failed since the stolen funds were sent to another account. PeckShield ensured that the funds were successfully transferred to the 0x1A5B…C742 address, where they are secure.
The Morpho Labs team swiftly acted when they realized that they had been exploited. The frontend update was quickly rolled back, and all functions were returned back to normal. The protocol provided an assurance that all the funds held on the Morpho system were safe and not affected in any way by the exploit. The team also explained that there was nothing more the users needed do so as to protect their assets.
Crypto Industry Faces MEV Threats
Subsequently, Morpho Labs issued the following update on X, stating that the frontend is secure. The team continued to assure the users that there were no other vulnerabilities. The system is strong and secure. They also said they would give more information in the coming week about the incident.
This exploit signifies that there are still risks affecting decentralized finance protocols. As this was exploited to the detriment of users of the platform. MEV attacks remain a significant threat across the crypto industry.
In another case, a hacker recently defrauded the Wayfinder (PROMPT) token airdrop by grabbing all the tokens before the eligible users could get to them. However, due to quick intervention, Morpho Labs did not suffer the same fate.
