Stars Arena, a decentralized social media platform built on the Avalanche network, has suffered a major security breach, resulting in the loss of a significant amount of cryptocurrency. This comes barely a day after the decentralized application (dApp) reportedly fixed a loophole in its smart contract.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, October 5, the Stars Arena team said \u2013 via a post on X<\/a> (formerly Twitter) \u2013 that it has averted a security exploit, which could have led to the loss of over $1 million worth of funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Saturday, October 7, a pseudonymous X user raised the alarm<\/a> about the suspicious movement of Avalanche (AVAX) tokens from the Stars Arena contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few minutes after this, the protocol\u2019s team confirmed \u2013 via a post on X \u2013 that there has been a \u201cmajor security breach with its smart contract.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There has been a major security breach with the smart contract. <\/p>\n We’re actively checking the issue. <\/p>\n DO NOT deposit any funds. <\/p>\n Stay tuned for updates.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stars Arena (@starsarenacom) October 7, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n This exploit has also been flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield, who disclosed that around $2.9 million in AVAX has been drained from the decentralized social media application.\u00a0<\/p>\n An initial breakdown<\/a> by the security company identified a reentrancy issue on the Stars Arena Shares contract. \u201cThe reentrancy is abused to update the weight when the share\/ticket is issued so that 1 share can be sold at a much higher price of approximately 274,000 AVAX,\u201d PeckShield said.<\/p>\n As earlier noted, Stars Arena has been gaining some popularity in the past few days. In fact, the recent activity uptick on the Avalanche network<\/a> has been attributed to the rise of the decentralized social application.<\/p>\n However, this latest hack represents a significant deterrent to Stars Arena\u2019s growth. According to data from DeFiLlama, the protocol\u2019s total value locked has plummeted from $1.26 million to $0.47 in the past day, reflecting a 100% decline.<\/p>\n Stars Arena went live on Avalanche C-Chain \u2013 the blockchain component specifically designed for running smart contracts on Avalanche \u2013 in late September. Although the Friend.tech-like<\/a> platform experienced some traction after launch, recent security concerns seem to be stirring skepticism around its growth.<\/p>\n This latest exploit will serve as an unfriendly reminder of the growing security concerns in the crypto space. Particularly, the cryptocurrency industry saw a significant surge in exploits and security breaches in the third quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n According to a quarterly report by blockchain security firm Beosin, the losses incurred only in Q3 2023 were larger than the total for the year\u2019s first half. A total of $889.26 million was lost to various attacks in the last quarter, compared to the $663 million lost in 2023\u2019s first six months.<\/p>\n\n Beosin\u2019s report revealed that $540.1 million was lost to hacks, with decentralized finance (DeFi) accounting for 18% of this value. Notably, DeFi peer-to-peer service Mixin Network lost $200 million<\/a> due to a compromise in its cloud service provider database.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n Stars Arena, a decentralized social media platform built on the Avalanche network, has suffered a major security breach, resulting in the loss of a significant amount of cryptocurrency. This comes barely a day after the decentralized application (dApp) reportedly fixed a loophole in its smart contract.<\/p>\n On Thursday, October 5, the Stars Arena team said \u2013 via a post on X<\/a> (formerly Twitter) \u2013 that it has averted a security exploit, which could have led to the loss of over $1 million worth of funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Saturday, October 7, a pseudonymous X user raised the alarm<\/a> about the suspicious movement of Avalanche (AVAX) tokens from the Stars Arena contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few minutes after this, the protocol\u2019s team confirmed \u2013 via a post on X \u2013 that there has been a \u201cmajor security breach with its smart contract.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There has been a major security breach with the smart contract. <\/p>\n We’re actively checking the issue. <\/p>\n DO NOT deposit any funds. <\/p>\n Stay tuned for updates.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stars Arena (@starsarenacom) October 7, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n This exploit has also been flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield, who disclosed that around $2.9 million in AVAX has been drained from the decentralized social media application.\u00a0<\/p>\n An initial breakdown<\/a> by the security company identified a reentrancy issue on the Stars Arena Shares contract. \u201cThe reentrancy is abused to update the weight when the share\/ticket is issued so that 1 share can be sold at a much higher price of approximately 274,000 AVAX,\u201d PeckShield said.<\/p>\n As earlier noted, Stars Arena has been gaining some popularity in the past few days. In fact, the recent activity uptick on the Avalanche network<\/a> has been attributed to the rise of the decentralized social application.<\/p>\n However, this latest hack represents a significant deterrent to Stars Arena\u2019s growth. According to data from DeFiLlama, the protocol\u2019s total value locked has plummeted from $1.26 million to $0.47 in the past day, reflecting a 100% decline.<\/p>\n Stars Arena went live on Avalanche C-Chain \u2013 the blockchain component specifically designed for running smart contracts on Avalanche \u2013 in late September. Although the Friend.tech-like<\/a> platform experienced some traction after launch, recent security concerns seem to be stirring skepticism around its growth.<\/p>\n This latest exploit will serve as an unfriendly reminder of the growing security concerns in the crypto space. Particularly, the cryptocurrency industry saw a significant surge in exploits and security breaches in the third quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n According to a quarterly report by blockchain security firm Beosin, the losses incurred only in Q3 2023 were larger than the total for the year\u2019s first half. A total of $889.26 million was lost to various attacks in the last quarter, compared to the $663 million lost in 2023\u2019s first six months.<\/p>\nStars Arena Loses $2.9 Million To Attack, PeckShield Reveals<\/strong><\/h2>\n
$900 Million Lost To Bad Actors In 2023 Q3<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Stars Arena Loses $2.9 Million To Attack, PeckShield Reveals<\/strong><\/h2>\n
$900 Million Lost To Bad Actors In 2023 Q3<\/strong><\/h2>\n