Metaverse and blockchain have become an emerging tech trend. From tech-savvy users to ordinary users, everyone is seeking ways to enter the Web3 world. However, there are also many hidden security threats in Web3. The cryptocurrency research team a16z has summarized some common security threats that the development team may encounter. Let’s find out how to protect your project.
APT (Advanced Persistent Thread) means a hidden attack against a specific organization. Unlike traditional attacks, APT is generally more complex, and hackers will start a long-running attack – they continuously sneak in and steal sensitive information - which can last for months or even years.
There is another similar attack. Attackers continuously issue small transactions to test smart contract vulnerabilities. Taking FOMO3D and Last Winner as examples, BAPT-F3D and BAPT-LW20 hacker groups earned 5194 eth in only four days.
Blockchain advocates decentralization, and the holders of governance tokens can vote in DAO. The voting mechanism gives communities the opportunity to express their views, but it may also be maliciously manipulated. In addition, poorly designed projects with vulnerabilities will allow hackers to control most of the votes and manipulate the results.
With the development of technology, phishing has been evolving. In addition to traditional email, phishing attacks in the Web3 world will also be spread through SMS, Discord channels or other social applications. The common attack methods are stealing the private key of users' crypto wallets or seed phrase. After the user clicks to enter a fake phishing website and provides seed phrase or private keys, the hacker can immediately transfers their assets.
Similar to traditional systems, Web3 requires different third-party software suite libraries. Since those kit library codes are not developed by the internal team of the project, it is easy to miss the known problems. Hackers like to attack with these third-party suites.
Zero-day is one of the most difficult to prevent attacks. It refers to a security vulnerability that has not been officially disclosed. And for that reason, it is difficult for developers to launch patches fixing the issue. What developers and users can do is to install the patches for serious vulnerabilities in time, as well as update your system regularly.
It is just an early stage of Web3, there are unknown threats, not to mention many issues and vulnerabilities still need time to be fixed. Meanwhile, we need to improve our awareness of network security and avoid falling into fraud by mistake. As a network security management service provider (MSSP), UD provides comprehensive blockchain security services, customizes the overall network security management for you, and guards your blockchain project all rounded to ensure the smooth development of the project.