- A Hacker stole nearly $17 million in crypto from users of Matcha Meta.
- The attack began around 5:10 p.m. London time on January 25 and was reported later that evening.
- Matcha Meta attributed the incident to the integrated aggregator SwapNet.
- Users who granted ongoing approvals should revoke permissions to aggregators outside 0x’s One-Time Approval contracts.
- Security firms and researchers highlighted an “approval” exploit as the likely mechanism behind the drain.
A hacker stole almost $17 million in crypto from users of Matcha Meta on January 25, with activity beginning at about 5:10 p.m. London time and initial reports emerging that evening. The incident involved trades routed through the aggregator SwapNet, and the team behind Matcha Meta traced the issue to that integration.
Security firm PeckShield characterised the event as a security breach, as noted in its post on X, and Matcha Meta later confirmed the attack in its own X announcement. PeckShield characterised the incident, and Matcha Meta confirmed the breach on X.
The project said users whose trades were routed via SwapNet and who did not use One-Time Approvals are at risk. It advised users to revoke approvals to any individual aggregators that are outside of 0x’s One-Time Approval contracts. Matcha Meta stated that, “The nature of the incident was not associated with 0x’s AllowanceHolder or Settler contracts,” clarifying which components were unaffected.
The attack appears linked to unlimited token approvals, which let an aggregator spend a user’s tokens without repeated confirmations. Researcher Weilin Li of University College London described the mechanism on X, saying “The root cause appears to be an arbitrary call controlled by the attacker that drains the open allowance to this contract,” and adding that “This is the largest approval attack (excluding phishing) I’ve ever seen.” Weilin Li wrote about the exploit.
DeFi security concerns have grown after large code exploits last year. A report by blockchain security firm Slowmist recorded more than $649 million stolen via code exploits over the prior year. The Slowmist report details those incidents.
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