The official website for the Monero cryptocurrency was hacked recently and attackers replaced legitimate wallet files offered for download with a malicious version.
The breach was discovered on November 18 after someone noticed that the hashes for the Linux CLI wallet available for download on getmonero.org did not match the hashes provided by the software’s developers.
An investigation revealed that some of the legitimate wallet files had been replaced with a malicious version. Fortunately, the malicious files were not available for download for very long, but at least one user claimed that their wallet was drained after downloading a manipulated file.
Monero users have been instructed to check the hashes of their CLI wallet binaries if they were downloaded on Monday, November 18, between 2:30 AM UTC and 4:30 PM UTC.
“If [the hashes] don’t match the official ones, delete the files and download them again. Do not run the compromised binaries for any reason,” the Monero team said.
Researcher Bart Blaze has analyzed one of the malicious Linux wallets and discovered that it was designed to steal the victim’s seed — the seed allows users to access their funds in cryptocurrency wallets — and exfiltrate funds from their wallet.
The malware communicates with a command and control (C&C) server that was also found to host a Windows version of the malware, which is also designed to steal seeds and funds.
It’s currently unclear how the attackers managed to plant the malware on the official website, but the Monero team has promised to provide more information once it has completed its investigation into the incident.
Monero (XMR) is one of the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies and 1 XMR is currently worth roughly $60.
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Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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