{"id":6549,"date":"2018-04-06T02:34:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T02:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=6549"},"modified":"2018-04-06T08:52:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T08:52:36","slug":"verge-suffers-51-attack-hacker-points-to-2-more-bugs-in-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/verge-suffers-51-attack-hacker-points-to-2-more-bugs-in-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Verge Suffers 51% Attack, Hacker Hints Of 2 More Bugs In Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The reliability and integrity of Verge<\/a> (XVG), an anonymous, secure and private cryptocurrency, was put under question by hackers who took advantage of bugs in the code to successfully capture the majority of mining power (network\u2019s hashrate), dubbed as \u201c51% attack.\u201d<\/strong>. The hacker made 250,000 coins in a span of three hours. More importantly, the hacker left a message in one of the cryptocurrency forums<\/a> saying there are still bugs left in Verge\u2019s code, which can be easily exploited.<\/p>\n

The hack was discovered and announced by \u201cocminer,\u201d<\/strong> a poster on Bitcointalk forums<\/a>. According to ocminer, the hacker exploited \u201cseveral bugs\u201d in Verge\u2019s code to mine an extraordinarily large number of new blocks on Verge\u2019s blockchain. This enabled the hacker to generate incredible returns in a short span of time. In particular, the hacker was able mine new blocks with spoofed timestamp using the same algorithm.
\nAccording to \u201cocminer,\u201d <\/strong>the 51% attack was done as follows\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually to successfully mine XVG blocks, every \u201cnext\u201d block must be of a different algo.. so for example scrypt,then x17, then lyra etc\u201d. Due to several bugs in the XVG code, you can exploit this feature by mining blocks with a spoofed timestamp. When you submit a mined block (as a malicious miner or pool) you simply set a false timestamp to this block one hour ago and XVG will then \u201cthink\u201d the last block mined on that algo was one hour ago.. Your next block, the subsequent block will then have the correct time.. And since it\u2019s already an hour ago (at least that is what the network thinks) it will allow this block to be added to the main chain as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even though Verge uses five different cryptographic algos for mining and switches to a new one for every block, the hacker was able to mine using a single algorithm, after finding a way to fake the timestamps of his\/her blocks. This enabled the hacker to gain control over the majority of the network\u2019s mining power with minimal computing power.<\/p>\n

Verge\u2019s lead developer Justin temporarily halted the attack after a second attempt with an emergency commit post. However, by that time, the hacker had established hundreds of blocks, with no way to reverse it other than through a hardfork. The attack went on for a period of 3 hours.<\/p>\n

Verge (XVG) coin lost 22%, following the news of the attack. The company, however, downplayed the attack, calling the breach a \u201csmall hash attack\u201d. Notably, a few weeks before the twitter account of Verge was hacked.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
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We had a small hash attack that lasted about 3 hours earlier this morning, it’s been cleared up now. We will be implementing even more redundancy checks for things of this nature in the future! $XVG<\/a> #vergefam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) April 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n