Polygon upgrade quietly fixes bug that put $24B of MATIC at risk

Ethereum-based layer two scaling community Polygon has quietly mounted a vulnerability that put virtually $24 billion value of its native token MATIC in danger.

Based on a Dec. 29 weblog publish from Polygon, the “crucial” vulnerability within the community’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Genesis contract was first highlighted by two whitehat hackers on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 by way of blockchain security and bug bounty internet hosting platform Immunefi.

All it is advisable know in regards to the latest Polygon community replace.
✅A safety companion found a vulnerability
✅Repair was instantly launched
✅Validators upgraded the community
✅No materials hurt to the protocol/end-users
✅White hats had been paid a bounty https://t.co/oyDkvohg33

— Polygon | $MATIC (@0xPolygon) December 29, 2021

The vulnerability put greater than 9.27 billion MATIC in danger that’s valued at round $23.6 billion on the time of writing, with the determine representing the overwhelming majority of the token’s whole provide of 10 billion.

Polygon famous that the bug was resolved at Block #22156660 by way of an “Emergency Bor Improve” to the Mainnet on Dec. 5 at round 7:27 am UTC. The community famous {that a} “malicious hacker” managed to steal 801,601 MATIC ($2.04 million) earlier than the bug was resolved. The weblog publish stated:

“The Polygon core crew engaged with the group and Immunefi’s skilled crew and instantly launched a repair. The validator and full node communities had been notified, and so they rallied behind the core devs to improve 80% of the community inside 24 hours with out stoppage.”

Polygon said that the problem was mounted behind closed doorways because it follows the “silent patches” coverage launched by the Go Ethereum (Geth) crew in November 2020. Beneath the rules, initiatives or builders report on key bug fixes 4-8 weeks after they go dwell to keep away from the chance of being exploited on the time of patching.

Based on Immunefi, Whitehat hacker “Leon Spacewalker” was the primary to report on the safety gap on Dec. 3 and will probably be rewarded with $2.2 million value of stablecoins for his or her efforts, whereas the second unnamed hacker, referred to as “Whitehat2” will obtain 500,000 MATIC ($1.27 million) from Polygon.

Associated: Here’s how Polygon is challenging the limitations of Ethereum, as told by co-founder Sandeep Nailwal

Polygon’s co-founder Jaynti Kanani emphasised the network’s ability to promptly resolve the crucial bug, noting within the weblog publish that:

“What’s vital is that this was a take a look at of our community’s resilience in addition to our capacity to behave decisively underneath stress. Contemplating how a lot was at stake, I consider our crew has made the very best selections attainable given the circumstances.”

Based on information from Coingecko, MATIC is priced at $2.45 and is up 35.1% over the previous 30 days regardless of the present downturn throughout main crypto belongings this month.