Monero’s community wallet has been hacked and unfortunately, the hacker/s were able to siphon a Monero XMR worth 2,675.73. This is said to be equivalent to almost $460,000 which is also the entire funds stored in the crypto wallet.

Monero XMR is an open-source, privacy-oriented digital token that was first launched in 2014. Crypto users usually store this virtual currency in Monero’s crypto wallet but this month, it was revealed that the wallet has been attacked.

Details of the Security Breach

It was reported that the cause or source of the hacking incident is still not clear as Monero has not yet identified the culprit. The breach mainly affected Monero’s Community Crowdfunding System (CCS) wallet and as stated earlier, the entire balance has been wiped out.

This is a late report as the hacking originally transpired in September but was only disclosed by one of the company’s developers named Luigi earlier this month via the GitHub platform. He explained that they confirmed the breach but still needed to identify who was responsible.

Luigi also said that it happened just before midnight on Sept. 1 but clarified that the hot wallet which they use for payments to contributors is unaffected, with its 244 XMR balance intact. Another developer, Ricardo "Fluffypony" Spagni, also commented on Luigi’s post and said

“This attack is unconscionable, as they have taken funds that a contributor might be relying on to pay their rent or buy food.”

According to CoinTelegraph, only Luigi and Spagni had access to the wallet seed phrase. And as shared by the former, Moner’s CCS wallet was established on an Ubuntu system in 2020, alongside a Monero node.

Tracks Left by Hackers

The Crypto Times reported that the cyber attack raised concerns in the Monero community and investors are now feeling edgy. The exact method used by the skilled hackers remained unknown and is still being probed.

But then again, some details of the incident were uncovered by Moonstone after looking into the events. It said that the culprits took out funds from Monero’s CSS wallets in nine transactions and left behind traces of their activities including 17 input enotes and 1 output enotes in the transactions.

These were said to have been labeled a “poisoned” operation because of its unique structure. With the traces it found, Moonstone thinks that only the attackers made the transactions but their identities remained a mystery.

Photo by: Traxer/Unsplash