The infamous phishing group Angel Drainer has made another daring dive into the world of crypto. They’ve left a path of financial ruin behind them. According to reports, this group successfully took more than $400,000 from 128 unsuspecting crypto wallets. They used a new attack method that takes advantage of Etherscan’s verification tool. This hides the true nature of a smart contract.
Angel Drainer’s Phishing Frenzy
The latest exploit was uncovered by Blockaid, which is a highly reputable front in the Web3 security space, with an alert research team on duty around the clock to unearth the latest sinister scheme cooked up by the Angel Drainer faction. In a thread on X (Twitter,) Blockaid said:
Today our researchers discovered yet another emerging attack vector from the Angel Drainer group — this time phishing users and leading them to a single Safe Vault contract where 128 wallets have been drained of $403k+ so far.
The Angel Drainer operation pulled off its scheme perfectly on time at 6:41 am UTC this Monday, February 12th. Deploying a Safe vault contract bearing the address 0xbaee148df4bf81abf9854c9087f0d3a0ffd93dbb, the group proceeded to lure unsuspecting victims into their trap. In the guise of legitimacy, it went on to have the customers sign a Permit2 with this Safe Vault designated to act as the operator, hence unknowingly giving access to their digital assets.
The attack didn’t target Safe platform itself. Safe users don’t have to worry about widespread repercussions. Instead, Angel Drainer smartly used the automatic verification flag added by Etherscan to Safe contracts, giving a fake sense of safety. This sneaky move shows why being careful and wise in the crypto community is key.
Blockaid has moved quickly to contain the fallout from this audacious heist, informing the Safe team promptly and setting into motion containment measures. Working in close coordination with customers and partners, they are moving to put in place as many safeguards against further incursion as possible and shore up defenses against future threats.
Even as the landscape of the crypto space morphs daily with new innovations facilitating financial empowerment and the advancement of technology, yet at the same time, vigilance remains the greatest line of defense against any predation by cyber criminals. The Angel Drainer saga underpins the grim reminder of how ever-present risks are lurking within the digital domain, with stakeholders on their toes and in a proactive mode in the constant battle to secure the future of finance.
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