More than 280 blockchain networks are at risk of \u201czero-day\u201d exploits that could put at least $25 billion worth of crypto at risk, according to cybersecurity firm Halborn. <\/p>\n
In a March 13 blog post, Halborn warned of the vulnerability it dubbed \u201cRab13s\u201d \u2014 adding it has already worked with some blockchains, such as Dogecoin, Litecoin and Zcash, to institute a fix for it.<\/p>\n
Halborn said it was contracted in March 2022 to conduct a security review of Dogecoin\u2019s codebase and found \u201cseveral critical and exploitable vulnerabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
It later determined those same vulnerabilities \u201caffected over 280 other networks\u201d that risked billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n
Halborn outlined three vulnerabilities, the \u201cmost critical\u201d of which allows an attacker to \u201csend crafted malicious consensus messages to individual nodes, causing each to shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added these messages over time could expose the blockchain to a 51% attack where an attacker controls the majority of the network\u2019s mining hash rate or staked tokens to make a new version of the blockchain or take it offline.<\/p>\n
Other zero-day vulnerabilities it found would allow potential attackers to crash blockchain nodes by sending Remote Procedure Call (RPC) requests \u2014 a protocol allowing a program to communicate and request services from another.<\/p>\n
It added the likelihood of RPC-related exploits was lower as it requires valid credentials to undertake the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to codebase differences between the networks not all the vulnerabilities are exploitable on all the networks, but at least one of them may be exploitable on each network,\u201d Halborn warned.<\/p>\n