Ankr has released aBNBc token‘s December 1 Token exploit findings. It’s revealed that a malicious code package was deployed by a former employee. Now, the law enforcement and the Ankr team are bracing to prosecute the culprit.

The supply chain attack initiated by a former Ankr employee ended-up initiating a private key compromise upon an update. For the same, the internal HR processes and safety steps are being initiated by Ankr.

The findings reveal that soon following the attack, Ankr took the following steps on an immediate basis:

• Alerted the community and initiated plans to tackle the situation.

• The off-ramps were also duly informed to get going with their emergency plans after halting their trading.

• The smart contracts were secured with the formation of a new key to prevent future tampers.

• Ankr also updated smart contracts and systems to prevent the underlying collateral’s (BNB) unwarranted movements in their liquid staking product.

A recovery plan was also soon formed by Ankr to better handle the exploit aftermath. In this recovery plan, Ankr:

• Started to fully compensate users against the losses they sustained owing to the exploit.

• Ankr’s own Advanced API Tool was utilized to locate each and every aBNBc token holder in mere 10 seconds. This task could have taken hours together to perform if normal query methods were used on a dedicated node.

• Ankr team clicked a snapshot to enlist the affected users.

• A new ankrBNB token was created and duly airdropped to the holders affected.

• A reimbursement plan was readied for the users suffering the most from the exploit.

Under its reimbursement plan, Ankr fixed the aBNBc borrowing platform, Helio, via HAY Price restabilization. It’s assured by Ankr that they would keep on buying HAY up until the token stays unpegged and the funds are not spent.

ankrBNB token was airdropped to the affected aBNBc or aBNBb token holders. The DeFi liquidity providers were airdropped with the BNB token.

An agreement was also made to reimburse Wombat stkBNB LPs. A 100% coverage of the BNB Wombat LPs is also planned.

Moving forward, Ankr is initiating several strong measures for a secured future:

• Mandating a Multi-sig Authentication & Timelocks for any and all updates

• Strengthening internal security mechanism

• New monitoring and notification systems’ implementation

• Polishing DeFi protocols work procedures