DeFi Hack Rocks Orion Protocol: $3M Loss in Detail

Orion Protocol is the latest decentralized finance (DeFi) platform to fall victim to a malicious attack. The platform suffered a reentrancy exploit on February 2, resulting in the loss of approximately $3 million in ETH.

Despite the setback, Orion CEO Alexey Koloskov was quick to reassure users that their funds were safe and that the damage was contained to an internal broker account.

Over the weekend, Rekt published a post-mortem of the attack, which concluded that the attacker used manipulated swaps of flash loaned stablecoins to artificially deposit assets twice before withdrawing the inflated balance.

The attacker created a fake token (ATK) to double their balance before making off with the stolen funds.

According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the number of crypto exploits in January of this year was 93% lower than the amount lost to exploits in January 2022. January of this year saw a total of $8.8 million lost to various exploits and attacks on the sector.

In response to the attack, Orion Protocol posted an update on February 4 stating that they had addressed several issues, such as bug fixes and interface changes.

Rekt concluded that the $3 million loss has “motivated Orion to take a more controlled approach” in ensuring the security of their platform.

In conclusion, while DeFi exploits continue to make headlines, the overall number of such incidents appears to be on the decline.

Nevertheless, it remains crucial for DeFi platforms to take a proactive approach in addressing security concerns to protect user funds and maintain the integrity of the DeFi sector.