Key Takeaways
- The exploit targeted Aurory’s SyncSpace bridge on Arbitrum’s native DEX Camelot
- Attack caused the liquidity of the AURY-USDC pool to fall from $1.5 million to $312,000.
On December 17, 2023, Aurory, the Solana-based gaming ecosystem, experienced a significant breach, causing an 80% drop in liquidity for the AURY-USDC pool on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Camelot.
Reports circulating on X (formerly Twitter) suggested that the exploit targeted Aurory’s SyncSpace bridge on Arbitrum’s native DEX Camelot at around 13:00 UTC, leading to the liquidity of the AURY-USDC pool plunging from $1.5 million to approximately $312,000.
SyncSpace, Aurory’s bridge, is instrumental in allowing users to seamlessly switch items between on-chain and off-chain with a single transaction. This functionality enables assets earned in-game, initially residing off-chain, to be moved to the blockchain when users choose to DeSync them.
In response to the breach, Aurory’s team member Tim revealed in a thread on X that tokens owned by the team were stolen and promptly sold. Tim assured the community that they have been repurchasing the tokens while actively investigating the incident. A detailed post-mortem report is promised once a comprehensive audit is completed.
Interestingly, this incident contradicts a previous blog post by Aurory’s team in October 2022, where they asserted that a cross-SyncSpace hack was impossible due to the technology’s reliance on signatures for Sync/DeSync operations. The breach raises questions about the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats and the need for constant vigilance within the blockchain gaming space.
This breach follows another exploit in the blockchain space. On December 16, the trading platform NFT Trade fell victim to an attack on two of its old smart contracts. This exploit allowed the theft of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) valued at nearly $3 million. Notably, a significant portion of the stolen tokens was returned following the payment of a 10% bounty to the attacker.
