Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, recently discovered a vulnerability that could potentially become a hacker’s goldmine.
It all began with an investigation by a security expert who was searching for vulnerabilities in various systems. He sent an email to Kraken regarding a potential flaw. While such reports often turn out to be false, Kraken took notice and its technical team immediately took action.
The discovered error allowed manipulation of the system by crediting funds to your account before the deposit was confirmed through the banking clearing process. Essentially, it meant you could make purchases and acquire things without paying any fees.
Kraken’s Head of Security, Nick Percoco, believes this was due to recent updates that disrupted the synchronization system. Fortunately, this issue didn’t last long.
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Ultimately, three accounts took advantage of this vulnerability. One belonged to the initial analyst who made $4 as evidence of the problem. However, instead of seeking a reward from Kraken (ethical hackers receive compensation), this person informed the other two individuals about it.
These two individuals exploited the situation and generated millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrencies, managing to withdraw $30,000 from Kraken before anyone noticed what had happened.
