Binance Smart Chain sounds alarm over ‘well-organized’ DeFi attacks

Following a series of high-profile, multimillion hacker attacks on several decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms based on Binance Smart Chain, the network has issued an official “call for action” to developers.

“There are >8 #flashloan hacks recently, we believe, an well organized hackers (sic) are targeting #BSC now. It is very (sic) challenging time for the BSC communty (sic). We are calling for the actions for all the #dapps,” Binance Smart Chain tweeted today.

There are >8 #flashloan hacks recently, we believe, an well organized hackers are targeting #BSC now. It is very challenging time for the BSC communty. We are calling for the actions for all the #dapps:

— Binance Smart Chain (@BinanceChain) May 30, 2021

As CryptoSlate reported, projects such as Belt Finance, BurgerSwap, Pancake Bunny, and others have been exploited for millions or even tens of millions of dollars over the past weeks. Most often than not DeFi platforms are falling victim to so-called “flash loan attacks.”

Plan the plan

In today’s announcement, BSC outlined a few recommendations for decentralized applications (dapps) on how to mitigate the risks of a hacker attack. First of all, dapp developers should seek help from dedicated security audit companies such as CertiK and PeckShield to “double and triple-check” their platforms’ code.

“Apply necessary risk control measures to actively monitor any abnomaly (sic) in a real-time manner and pause the protocol if any abnomaly (sic) indeed occurs,” BSC suggested.

For the worst-case scenario, DeFi developers should also “plan a contingency plan” that would be set in motion when a potential hack occurs. Another good practice is to set up bug bounty programs, offering blockchain engineers monetary rewards for discovering critical vulnerabilities in DeFi protocols, BSC concluded.

BSC is “forking uncontrollably”

Meanwhile, some users began reporting that Binance Smart Chain itself is experiencing technical difficulties over a week ago.

If you have any funds on BSC it’s probably best to get them off there asap.

Stay safe everyone. https://t.co/XeOxUQGAi2

— Anthony Sassano Ξ ?? (@sassal0x) May 20, 2021

“I run a BSC node. The network is constantly forking uncontrollably. For every block that is part of the main chain, there are around 5 uncles (forked blocks). Several validators are running sub-par hardware and cannot keep up with the rest of the network,” Twitter user Crypto Ultron said on May 20.

Anthony Sassano, a co-founder of Ethereum research and resources hub EthHub, echoed this concern, urging users who have any funds on BSC “to get them off there asap.” However, it is unclear whether the alleged network issues have anything in common with the latest wave of hacker attacks on BSC-based DeFi platforms.

CryptoSlate has reached out to Binance for additional comments (both today and last week) but did not receive a reply at press time.

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