Solana wallets exploited in latest attack

8,000 Solana ‘hot wallets’ on Phantom, Slope and TrustWallet have been drained of $5 million worth of SOL. Source of the attack remains unknown and the attack is still ongoing. It remains unclear whether the attack is due to a vulnerability in the Solana network

On Tuesday, users of ‘hot wallets’ Phantom, Slope and TrustWallet reported that their SOL tokens have been drained out without their knowledge.

According to blockchain auditors OtterSec, over 8,000 wallets linked to Solana addresses have been compromised so far, with those wallets amassing at least $5 million worth of Solana based tokens SOL and SPL.

It is reported that the attacker predominantly targeted mobile wallets, gaining ability to sign-off transactions on the behalf of the users. This suggests that a trusted third-party service may have been compromised leading to the attack.

Wallets that have been inactive for over six months appear to be the hardest hit during the attack.

“We are evaluating the incident impacting Solana wallets and are working closely with other teams in the ecosystem to get to the bottom of this. We will issue an update once we gather more information. At this time, the team does not believe this is Phantom specific issue,” said a representative of Phantom wallet.

The source of the attack remains unknown and the attack is still ongoing. Although, it remains unclear whether the vulnerability is limited to only Solana wallets, as some users reported losing USDC on both Solana and Ethereum wallets.

“Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana. There is no evidence that Solana’s network is at fault for the exploit,” said a spokesperson for Solana.

This attack reignites the long-running debate surrounding the security of hot wallets, which provides users with a convenient way to send, receive and store crypto tokens but is susceptible to attacks because it has to stay connected to the internet at all times.

Many crypto pioneers herald ‘cold wallets’ – USB drives that need to be plugged into the computer to sign-off transactions – as the more secure alternative.

The fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap has dropped by 4% since the attack and is currently trading at $39.67