Web3 is Going Just Great

Atari Token was described as "decentralized cryptocurrency that was created to become the token of reference for the interactive entertainment industry". It launched in November 2020, tanking in price immediately on release. Despite a brief boom around March 2021, the token has mostly traded below its launch price.

In the press release, Atari wrote, "Atari disclaims any interest in the [...] Joint Venture, currently promoted as Atari Tokens, and related websites, whitepapers and social media channels are unlicensed, unsanctioned and are outside the control of Atari." They also wrote that they would be replacing existing $ATRI tokens with new tokens in the future. Atari wrote that the termination of the hotel and casino agreements resulted in an €11 million ($11.8 million) write-off, but that financial impact of the token changes wouldn't be disclosed until the FY22 report.

The researchers were able to inject malicious code into the profile photo on Rarible, which only required a person to visit the malicious profile in order to run. This code could have then "infected" other signed-in users' profile photos, increasing the spread of the vulnerability to anyone who then visited their profiles. Once infected, the code would persist across all pages on Rarible, and could change arbitrary data on NFT listings, modify smart contract interactions, leak or modify profile information, or prompt users to sign arbitrary messages.

In an example, the researchers showed how a listing of a Bored Ape (pricey NFTs which currently have a floor price ~100 ETH / $290,000) could be modified for an impacted user to appear as though it was listed for only 1 ETH (~$2,900). A user who attempted to buy the apparently massively-discounted NFT could then be prompted to approve a sale transaction which would actually run a setApprovalForAll call that would allow the attackers to steal crypto and NFTs from the user's wallet.

This bug was the second Rarible vulnerability that was publicly disclosed this week, following a vulnerability with SVG NFTs disclosed by Check Point Research on April 14.

After the security researchers responsibly disclosed the vulnerability, which could have quickly wreaked havoc across Rarible's entire userbase, Rarible patched the issue and awarded them a bug bounty of $5,000. Good luck to Rarible if the next people who find a bug are even slightly more motivated by money than they are by ethics.

Starting on April 18, the projects were targeted with a series of flash loan attacks. The project faced a total of 267 flash loan attacks within one day, leading to major volatility in the ostensibly stable coin. In an impressive display of optimism, a project team member wrote, "This has caused a large price pump. (Also benefited with 3% more burned tokens in fees.) The outcome and intent of the person who has done this, is unknown and it may work in our favour, Do not panic, and do not buy or sell until stable." The attacker made a profit of around $190,000 from the attacks.

This did not go over so well for the people who were eager to get a spot in line to mint NFTs that cost 2.5 ETH ($7,650), but was selling with a floor price of 13.1 ETH ($40,000) on the secondary market shortly after the mint completed. If the person behind the Sybil scheme flipped their NFTs for the current floor price, they could make upwards of $1.6 million in profit.