Ribbon Finance Malicious DNS Hijack: Difference between revisions

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{{Imported Case Study|source=https://www.quadrigainitiative.com/casestudy/ribbonfinancemaliciousdnshijack.php}}
{{Imported Case Study With About|source=https://www.quadrigainitiative.com/casestudy/ribbonfinancemaliciousdnshijack.php}}
{{Unattributed Citations}}


[[File:Ribbonfinance.jpg|thumb|Ribbon Finance]]
[[File:Ribbonfinance.jpg|thumb|Ribbon Finance]]


This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.
<ref name="ribbonfinancewebsite-4139" /><ref name="ribbonfinancedocs-4143" /><ref name="ribbonfinancesecurity-4144" /><ref name="ribbonfinancepeckshieldaudit-4145" /><ref name="ribbonfinancechainsafeaudit-4146" /><ref name="ribbonfinancequantstampaudit-4147" /><ref name="ribbonfinancethetaaudit-4148" /><ref name="ribbonfinanceopenzeppelin-4149" />


== About Ribbon Finance ==
== About Ribbon Finance ==
"SUSTAINABLE ALPHA FOR EVERYONE" "Earn yield on your cryptoassets with DeFi's first structured products protocol." "Ribbon Finance is a new protocol that helps users access crypto structured products for DeFi. It combines options, futures, and fixed income to improve a portfolio's risk-return profile."
"SUSTAINABLE ALPHA FOR EVERYONE" "Earn yield on your cryptoassets with DeFi's first structured products protocol." "Ribbon Finance is a new protocol that helps users access crypto structured products for DeFi. It combines options, futures, and fixed income to improve a portfolio's risk-return profile."<ref name="ribbonfinancewebsite-4139" />


"Theta Vault, which is a yield-focused strategy on ETH and WBTC. The vault earns yield on its deposits by running a weekly automated options selling strategy. The vault reinvests the yield earned back into the strategy, effectively compounding the yields for depositors over time."
"Theta Vault, which is a yield-focused strategy on ETH and WBTC. The vault earns yield on its deposits by running a weekly automated options selling strategy. The vault reinvests the yield earned back into the strategy, effectively compounding the yields for depositors over time."<ref name="ribbonfinancedocs-4143" />


"Ribbon's v1 and v2 Theta Vault contracts are audited. Despite the audits and security measures we have taken, we advice users to exercise caution and to not risk funds they are not willing to lose." Audits were found provided by Quantstamp, ChainSafe (2 audits), Peckshield, and OpenZeppelin. "We have an ongoing bug bounty on ImmuneFi, with up to $50,000 of bounty. The contracts that are included in the bounty are ETH and WBTC Theta Vaults."
"Ribbon's v1 and v2 Theta Vault contracts are audited<ref name="ribbonfinancethetaaudit-4148" />. Despite the audits and security measures we have taken, we advice users to exercise caution and to not risk funds they are not willing to lose."<ref name="ribbonfinancesecurity-4144" /> Audits were found provided by Quantstamp<ref name="ribbonfinancequantstampaudit-4147" />, ChainSafe (2 audits)<ref name="ribbonfinancechainsafeaudit-4146" />, Peckshield<ref name="ribbonfinancepeckshieldaudit-4145" />, and OpenZeppelin<ref name="ribbonfinanceopenzeppelin-4149" />. "We have an ongoing bug bounty on ImmuneFi, with up to $50,000 of bounty. The contracts that are included in the bounty are ETH and WBTC Theta Vaults."
 
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.
 
The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.
 
Include:
 
* Known history of when and how the service was started.
* What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
* What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
* Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
* Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
* How were people recruited to participate?
* Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.
 
Don't Include:
* Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
* Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.
There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.


== The Reality ==
== The Reality ==
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|NameCheap Clarifies Hack
|NameCheap Clarifies Hack
|NameCheap responds that it "[l]ooks more like [their customer support] person was hacked."<ref name="namecheapceotwitter3-10566" />
|NameCheap responds that it "[l]ooks more like [their customer support] person was hacked."<ref name="namecheapceotwitter3-10566" />
|-
|February 7th, 2023 7:28:56 PM
|First Event
|Describe the event.
|}
|}


== Total Amount Lost ==
== Total Amount Lost ==
No funds were lost.
The total amount lost is unknown.


How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?
How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?
Line 81: Line 55:


== Total Amount Recovered ==
== Total Amount Recovered ==
There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.
The total amount recovered is unknown.


What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?
What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Revision as of 23:53, 20 February 2023

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Ribbon Finance


About Ribbon Finance

"SUSTAINABLE ALPHA FOR EVERYONE" "Earn yield on your cryptoassets with DeFi's first structured products protocol." "Ribbon Finance is a new protocol that helps users access crypto structured products for DeFi. It combines options, futures, and fixed income to improve a portfolio's risk-return profile."[1]

"Theta Vault, which is a yield-focused strategy on ETH and WBTC. The vault earns yield on its deposits by running a weekly automated options selling strategy. The vault reinvests the yield earned back into the strategy, effectively compounding the yields for depositors over time."[2]

"Ribbon's v1 and v2 Theta Vault contracts are audited[3]. Despite the audits and security measures we have taken, we advice users to exercise caution and to not risk funds they are not willing to lose."[4] Audits were found provided by Quantstamp[5], ChainSafe (2 audits)[6], Peckshield[7], and OpenZeppelin[8]. "We have an ongoing bug bounty on ImmuneFi, with up to $50,000 of bounty. The contracts that are included in the bounty are ETH and WBTC Theta Vaults."

The Reality

While the smart contract operates in a decentralized manner, most users will tend to interact with the contracts using transactions generated by a centralized website. When a domain name is accessed on the internet, a service called DNS is used to point the domain name to an IP address[9].

The Ribbon Finance project used NameCheap for their registrar for their primary website[10]. The procedures at NameCheap were such that support team members were able to override the DNS of the website to point the domain name to a malicious server[11][12][13].

What Happened

The account of a customer support agent for NameCheap was hacked[14].

"The attacker was able to access the NameCheap account, even with 2-factor authentication enabled, a strong password, and security alerts. Convex team still had access to the account; 2FA was still enabled, the password was the same, but the attacker was still able to access the account, change the DNS to point to the malicious website, and disable security alerts."

Key Event Timeline - Ribbon Finance Malicious DNS Hijack
Date Event Description
March 22nd, 2022 Domain Vault Announced The first archived appearance of the "Domain Vault" service on NameCheap which costs $19.88/mo and is still "coming soon"[15].
June 24th, 2022 10:01:00 AM NameCheap Response NameCheap responds that "We've traced this down to a specific CS agent that was either hacked or compromised somehow and have removed all access from this agent. This affected a few targeted domains but we will continue investigating."[16]
June 24th, 2022 11:21:00 AM NameCheap DomainVault "Usually we require a pin code from customer. We also monitor all actions as well a monitor a real time vip list. In the end our [customer support] needs to be able to modify to help customers especially when 99% don't understand dns. If you want complete security use [DomainVault]"[17]
June 24th, 2022 4:16:00 PM NameCheap Clarifies Hack NameCheap responds that it "[l]ooks more like [their customer support] person was hacked."[14]

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

The total amount recovered is unknown.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Prevention Policies

The issue ultimately stemmed from a single customer support agent being compromised. A multi-signature requirement on DNS changes would have prevented this scenario entirely.

While NameCheap offers advanced protections on their domain names, this service had just launched two days prior to the DNS change, so it was unlikely to be a reasonable expectation that Convex Finance would have already signed up.

Users of platforms need to be careful and double check any new approval requested by any platform against the proper smart contract address. It is recommended to double check any new smart contract addresses being interacted with.

References