RTFKT Discord Breach

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RTFKT

NFT platform RTFKT used MEE6, a widely implemented Discord bot which assists with ranking and moderation functions. MEE6 had administrative level access to a wide range of Discord servers where it was set up. One of the MEE6 employee accounts was compromised, and the attackers used that to run widespread phishing attacks on multiple NFT communities, including RTFKT. The NFT space often has time-sensitive opportunities. It's unclear exactly how many users were affected, and it seems that no funds have been recovered. MEE6 has apparently not published further details about what happened. RTFKT doesn't appear to have made a public announcement, much less any reimbursement, however they did provide a later educational session along with Ledger via Discord.

About RTFKT

RTFKT is a creator-led organization that combines game engines, NFTs, blockchain authentication, and augmented reality to create unique experiences in fashion, sneakers, and digital artifacts. They are known for their viral sneaker designs, collectibles, 3D & AR wearables, avatars, and original art. Despite rumors of using a rogue AI for design, RTFKT denies these claims and asserts that there is no evidence or legal action supporting them. Previously operating in the shadows, they formed an entity in January 2020 to expand into the public metamarket, resulting in excellent response and rapid social growth. They partnered with artist Takashi Murakami for the Clone X avatar collection, fostering a global community that empowers each other to learn and create interactive experiences. RTFKT aims to accelerate the digital future due to the accelerated development of human consciousness.

We are a creator led organisation. RTFKT uses the latest in game engines, NFT, blockchain authentication and augmented reality, combined with manufacturing expertise to create one of a kind sneakers and digital artifacts.

About MEE6

"MEE6 is a 2-year-old Discord bot known for Levels, Auto-moderation, and its' paid music/record features. We also offer Reddit/Twitch/YouTube notifications, timers, custom commands, and other moderation features." "The best Discord Bot for your server." "Configure moderation, leveling, Twitch alerts, and much more with the most easy-to-use dashboard!" "Take advantage of the welcome message to inform newcomers about your server rules, topic, or ongoing events. You can design your own welcome card or keep it simple."

"MEE6 gives you full control to create the command of your dreams! Create commands that automatically give and remove roles and send messages in the current channels or in user's DM." "Notify your server when you or your favorite content creators begin to stream, upload, and post content." "MEE6, the Discord Bot trusted by 19+ million servers." As of April 2022, "Mekaverse, Doodles, CyberKongz, VeeFriends, CoolCats, and RTFKT all use MEE6 everyday to manage their Discord server. More than 60,000 NFT & crypto Discord servers setup MEE6 every month, and that number is growing fast."

"With lots of high-profile crypto projects using Discord, this leakage of information can reveal “not-yet-announced partnerships, upcoming product launches, exchange listings, and coordinate multi-sig signers,” as reported by Fraser."

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

Discord vulnerabilities.

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

In a single week in mid-May "alone, [at least] 5 NFT discord hacks were observed. Discord servers of NFT projects including the Memeland, RTFKT, CLONEX, PXN, and Moonbird were compromised along with the NFT video game Axie Infinity, after Mee6 bot was hacked." "Another tweet was shared by PeckShield, a blockchain cybersecurity firm, warning users about compromised NFT Discord Server of Memeland, RTFKT, PROOF/Moonbirds and infrastructure company Cyberconnect."

"A team member of [similarly hacked] Memeland noted, “a discord bot (mee6) seems to be compromised across various high profile servers.” The mee6 bot is used by the server owners to automate welcome messages and inform about the server rules, events and topics." "Once you interact with these fake bots they will snag your discord token, giving them instant access to your account without 2FA or your password."

"With lots of high-profile crypto projects using Discord, this leakage of information can reveal “not-yet-announced partnerships, upcoming product launches, exchange listings, and coordinate multi-sig signers,” as reported by Fraser."

"When RTFKT had their hack they were able to see the MEE6 bot was the culprit."

"MEE6's employee account was breached & scammers used that account to execute the scams and steal eth. MEE6 support denied it for hours yesterday [before later admitting what happened]."

MEE6 released a statement after the event: "Some servers have reported MEE6 being used to post unwanted messages. There is no technical breach in our systems. This was due to one of our employee's account getting compromised. The issue is now fixed and we've taken all the steps to make sure it never happens again. We take security very seriously, and will always be committed not only to keep our systems safe but also add extra measures to protect servers from accounts being compromised."

NFTHerder reports he "reached out to affected servers as well and they confirmed MEE6 hasn't shared a detailed report or offered reimbursements of misappropriated nfts/eth." "MEE6 has yet to release a detailed report." "[N]o intentions to refund. [T]hey won’t release a public statement cause scared of fud. [E]mployees can still remote access any server."

"In 10 min we go live again with @Ledger office hours in our discord. Topics: (1) Blind signing vs clear signing. (2) Ledger connect. (3) Discord bots / fake links."

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - RTFKT Discord Breach

Date	Event	Description
April 11th, 2022 3:06:00 AM MDT	MEE6 NFT Bullishness	Twitter user eggbomb.eth posts that he's bullish about the MEE6 NFT because "projects like CyberKongz, Doodles, Cool Cats, Veefriends, RTFKT and many more are using MEE6 Bot within their server".
April 12th, 2022 4:41:00 PM MDT	Not Enough To Convince You	NFT collector mekamran promotes the MEE6 NFT collection and at the same time the service. He posts that "Mekaverse, Doodles, CyberKongz, VeeFriends, CoolCats, and RTFKT all use MEE6 everyday to manage their Discord server. More than 60,000 NFT & crypto Discord servers setup MEE6 every month, and that number is growing fast"
May 17th, 2022 7:29:00 PM MDT	Warning By WIMPZ	Twitter user WIMPZ warns that "[i]f using MEE6 in your Discord, it has been compromised/hacked - per sources. RTFKT and Moonbirds/Proof may have been hit."
May 17th, 2022 7:45:00 PM MDT	Warning By Mina	Twitter user Mina Gameel warns that the "Mee6 bot is hacked[, w]hich is used in alot of NFT Discord". She mentions that Memeland, RTFKT, and Proof servers have all been hacked, and warns to "[b]e [c]autious" and not to "click any links" or "connect your wallet".
May 17th, 2022 8:17:00 PM MDT	PeckShield Alert Tweet	PeckShield posts an alert tweet to warn the NFT community of the attack, referencing accounts for NFT projects CyberConnect, RTFKT, Moonbirds, and Memeland.
May 17th, 2022 8:26:00 PM MDT	Blabre Warning Tweet	Blabre warns the "MEE6 is hacked, all the discord that are facing issues. Kick MEE6 out of the server." He includes Memeland, CloneX, RTFKT, and Moonbirds in his tweet as affected discords.
May 17th, 2022 8:31:00 PM MDT	Zeneca Warning Tweet	"Hearing multiple reports that the Mee6 bot has been compromised and certain high-profile Discord servers have been hacked all at once (RTFKT, PROOF/Moonbirds, PXN, Memeland)".
May 17th, 2022 8:55:00 PM MDT	MEE6 Official Support Denying Hack	"As per MEE6 official support: MEE6 was not hacked. Admins in the servers where compromised which allowed them to use MEE6 features to post messages".
May 17th, 2022 9:48:00 PM MDT	Ryuk Developer Warning	Ryuk publishes a warning on Twitter about high profile discords being hacked including RTFKT, Memeland, PXN, Moonbirds, and Cool Cats "within the last hour" and "recommend[s] removing MEE6 from your servers".
May 17th, 2022 10:02:00 PM MDT	Jake H Twitter Analysis	Jake H publishes a detailed thread explaining what he calls the "New Account Hacking Method". They outlined how administrators of projects would be approached with collaboration offers, and fake verification bots would be used to gain credentials to the Discord account of the administrator, which could then be used through webhooks to post the messages.
May 18th, 2022 12:45:00 AM MDT	Beosin Alert Tweet	Beosin provided an alert about the MEE6 bot being compromised and listed the affected projects as @mypethooligan, @TheApiens, @CyberConnectHQ, @proof_xyz, @RTFKT, @Moonbirds, @memeland, and @AxieInfinity.
May 18th, 2022 2:58:00 AM MDT	Tricky NFTs Warning	Twitter user Tricky NFTs posts a warning on Twitter about compromised on a large number of Discord channels including RTFKT, Alien Frens, Cool Cats, PXN, HAPE, Axie Infinity, Proof, PSSSD, My pet hooligans, Blockworks, Rolimons, Roblox, Moonbirds, Memeland, XQC, Magic Eden, Solrarity, Okay Bears, HABIBIZ, and Lazy Lions.
May 18th, 2022 3:22:00 AM MDT	Jacob H List Published	Jacob H publishes a list of "[s]ervers hit in the last 8 hours via MEE6" which include RTFKT (165k), Alien Frens (74k), Cool Cats (101k), PXN (32k), HAPE (479k), Axie Infinity (739k), PSSSD (80k), My Pet Hooligans (31k), Blockworks (6k), Moonbirds/PROOF (17k), Memeland/9GAG (238k), and Magic Eden (194k).
May 18th, 2022 3:50:10 AM MDT	Vauld Insights Article	Vauld Insights publishes an article on the situation. They cover over the attack and note that "Memeland, RTFKT, CLONEX, PXN, and Moonbird were compromised along with the NFT video game Axie Infinity". According to the article, MEE6 was denying the hacking claim at this time.
May 18th, 2022 6:23:00 AM MDT	MEE6 Twitter Acknowledgement	The MEE6 Twitter account publicly acknowledges the attack. They report it was due to one of their employee's accounts getting compromised, and they've taken "all the steps" to make sure it never happens again.
May 18th, 2022 8:32:03 AM MDT	Vice News Article Published	Vice News publishes an article about the NFT Discord exploits occurring.
May 18th, 2022 9:37:00 AM MDT	Idea For Reimbursement Floated	NFTHerder floats the idea that the MEE6 bot developers should reimburse those users who were affected by the loss. "MEE6's employee account was breached & scammers used that account to execute the scams and steal eth. MEE6 support denied it for hours yesterday"
May 18th, 2022 11:28:00 AM MDT	RyanCAD Summary Published	Twitter user RyanCAD publishes a "thread summarizing the recent Discord attacks of several high-profile servers including @CoolCats, @RTFKT, @projectPXN, @moonbirds and more". This includes a summary of how the bot behaved as well as the particular actions which were taken along with a log file from RTFKT. His recommendation is to change your password frequently.
May 18th, 2022 10:12:00 PM MDT	NFTherder Request For Reimbursement	NFTherder requests reimbursement from MEE6 on Twitter, warning that they'll "lose all credibility in the nft space" if they don't.
May 19th, 2022 10:52:00 AM MDT	RTFKT Ledger Office Hours	The RTFKT team works with Ledger and announces a live show to cover "[b]lind signing vs clear signing", "Ledger connect", and "Discord bots / fake links".
May 19th, 2022 3:13:20 PM MDT	VPNOverview Article Published	VPNOverview publishes an article about the NFT channels being exploited.
May 23rd, 2022 8:00:00 AM MDT	CPO Magazine Article Published	CPO Magazine publishes an article on the exploits.
May 30th, 2022 10:12:00 AM MDT	NFTHerder Publishes Discord Hack List	This incident is included in a list of Discord hacks published by NFTHerder.
May 31st, 2022 11:08:16 AM MDT	NFTEvening Negligence Article	The NFTEvening news site publishes an article originally titled "NFT Twitter Accuses Discord Bot MEE6 of Negligence" and later retitled "MEE6 Discord Bot Accused of Negligence". TBD read more detail.
May 31st, 2022 11:15:22 AM MDT	Business News Article	The online Business News site publishes an article about the situation.
June 7th, 2022 6:41:00 AM MDT	NFTherder Again Requests Reimbursement	NFTherder again publicly requests reimbursement and acknowledgement from the MEE6 team, in response to the launch of their NFT project. "y'know what would be even cooler? Addressing the fact that because of your MEE6 over 200 eth was stolen and you've been dodging communication ever since."
June 8th, 2022 3:53:00 AM MDT	NFTherder Public Criticism	NFTherder posts at "3 weeks" later that it's "[t]ime to stop using MEE6" because there are "[n]o official report or refunds" and shares the NFTEvening article.
June 8th, 2022 5:41:00 AM MDT	NFTherder Reaching Out To Other Servers	NFTherder reaches out to affected servers and confirms that "MEE6 hasn't shared a detailed report or offered reimbursements of misappropriated nfts/eth".
June 9th, 2022 6:06:00 PM MDT	NFTherder Stops Using MEE6 Bot	NFTherder posts on Twitter that they will "stop using MEE6 on all future servers", citing "no intention to refund", "they won't release a public statement", and "employees can still remote access any server". He expands that "[right now] anything is preferred over mee6".
June 10th, 2022 3:59:00 PM MDT	Jack Tracante Information	Jack Tracante has some additional information on how servers are managed. "The channel with these logs can only be seen by a few people so we know exactly what happened. When RTFKT had their hack they were able to see the MEE6 bot was the culprit for example."

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?

The incident was included in a list of hacks prepared by NFTHerder.

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

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?

Individual Prevention Policies

NFT traders can avoid falling victim to fraudulent minting by not making rushed decisions, double checking any promotions against multiple sources, and avoiding mints that seem to be too good to be true.

Any time that you are promised any profit or benefit in exchange for an initial payment, smart contract approval, or deposit, pay special care as to whether the entity making that offer is trustworthy, actually who they say they are, and has the means to fulfill what they're promising. There are no magic algorithms providing guaranteed returns from trading or mining. Trading on average will lose money. Mining is expensive and complex. No one is going to immediately send back more than you sent them. NFT projects will rarely announce a surprise mint in only a single location. Are you fully prepared for the event your money is kept and nothing is delivered in return?

Every approval on Web3 is an opportunity to lose all of the funds present in your wallet. Take the time to review the transaction in full. Fully check over the balance, permissions, and entire address which you are interacting with. Do not trust that your clipboard or any website front-end is guaranteed to provide an accurate address or transaction status. Always perform a test transaction prior to the first high-value transaction in any session.

Private keys can be obtained through seed phrases, mnemonics, private key files, mobile synchronization screens, wallet export features, wallet backups, etc... Never ever send these to anyone else who you do not intend to allow to take all of your money. Attackers will use a wide variety of tactics to convince you like pretending to be your wallet software, pretending they work for the wallet software, or asking you to screen share. Don't fall for them.

Avoid the use of smart contracts unless necessary. Minimize the level of exposure by removing or withdrawing assets whenever possible. Aim to choose smart contracts which have obtained third party security audits, preferably having been audited by at least three separate reputable firms. Pay attention to the audit reports, which smart contracts are covered, and whether the smart contract has been upgraded or modified since the report. Ensure that any administrative functions with the ability to remove funds from the smart contract are under the authority of a multi-signature wallet which is controlled by at least three separate and reputable entities.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

The primary issue was related to the security of the Discord server, which granted additional unnecessary permissions to the MEE6 bot. The widespread bot access should not fall under the control of a single employee or system. Platforms need to ensure that their entire Discord setup is reviewed by a relevant expert.

All aspects of any platform should undergo a regular validation/inspection by experts. This validation should include a security audit of any smart contracts, reporting any risks to the backing (of any customer assets, ensuring treasuries or minting functions are properly secured under the control of a multi-signature wallet, and finding any inadequacies in the level of training or integrity of the team. The recommended interval is twice prior to launch or significant system upgrade, once after 3 months, and every 6 months thereafter. It is recommended that the third party performing the inspection not be repeated within a 14 month period.

A secondary issue is the inability for users to detect the fraudulent websites or minting offers. This could be solved through greater user education.

Never take for granted the limited knowledge of users of your service and their tendency to skip past provided information. It is recommended to design a simple tutorial and quiz for new users which explains the basics of seed phrases, strong password generation, secure two-factor authentication, common fraud schemes, how ponzi schemes work, as well as other risks which are unique to the cryptocurrency space. This tutorial and quiz should ensure their understanding and be a standard part of the sign-up or download process which is difficult or impossible to skip.

Finally, having some funds set aside to assist with users who fall victim to any sophisticated phishing attack is never a bad idea. Since this can be challenging for small firms to verify the legitimacy of most phishing attacks, and it may be challenging if a small platform faces a large attack, the ideal solution would be to pool funds and resources together in an industry insurance fund model.

Work with other industry platforms to set up a multi-signature wallet with private keys held separately by delegate signatories from seven prominent platforms and services within the industry. Establish requirements for contributions by all platforms and services, designed to be affordable for small platforms yet large enough to cover anticipated breach events. Any breach event can be brought forth by a member platform or a petition of 100 signatures for consideration by the delegate signatories. A vote of 4 or more delegate signatures is required to release any funds, which could partially or fully restore lost funds based on their assessment.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

Create a standard tutorial and quiz for all new cryptocurrency participants, which is required to be completed once per participant. This tutorial and quiz should cover the basics of proper seed phrase protection, strong password generation, secure two-factor authentication, common fraud schemes, how to detect and guard against phishing attacks, how ponzi schemes work, as well as other risks which are unique to the cryptocurrency space.

All platforms should undergo published security and risk assessments by independent third parties. Two assessments are required at founding or major upgrade, one after 3 months, and one every 6 months thereafter. The third parties must not repeat within the past 14 months. A risk assessment needs to include what assets back customer deposits and the risk of default from any third parties being lent to. The security assessment must include ensuring a proper multi-signature wallet, and that all signatories are properly trained. Assessments must be performed on social media, databases, and DNS security.

Set up a multi-signature wallet with private keys held separately by delegate signatories from seven prominent platforms and services within the industry. Establish requirements for contributions by all platforms and services within the country, designed to be affordable for small platforms yet large enough to cover anticipated breach events. Any breach event can be brought forth by a member platform or a petition of 100 signatures for consideration by the delegate signatories. A vote of 4 or more delegate signatures is required to release any funds, which could partially or fully restore lost funds based on their assessment.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.