Proof/Moonbirds Discord Compromised

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Moonbirds

Proof_XYZ, the team behind the Moonbirds NFT set, 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 Moonbirds. The NFT space often has a wide range of 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. It doesn't appear that Moonbirds or Proof_XYZ made any announcement about the breach on their Twitter.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Moonbirds

About links:

"Proof Collective, the organization behind the Moonbirds, is a group of 1000 NFT collectors. The Proof Collective is an NFT gated membership platform, where members share investment opportunities and receive access to some of the most desirable whitelists. Proof launched via dutch auction in December 2021 and rose from $5.000 to $375.000 today."

"Moonbirds is a new NFT project that skyrocketed from $7.500 to over $90.000 in one week, thus beating the performance of most other bluechip NFT projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club or Crypto Punks. Moonbirds brought in so far $60m upon launch and a total trading volume of $238m."

"A very experienced team led by Kevin Rose, one of the most prolific US Tech investors and entrepreneurs, which is part of the excitement around Proof. The team’s experience translates for example in the communication around the projects, which is consistent (regular town halls and updates) as well as transparent (before the launch of the Moonbirds, the team for example asked input from the whole collective about some key decisions such as pricing). They also share their reasoning behind why they have made certain decisions for everyone to understand. Also the communication around the departure of their COO was swift and transparent."

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."

"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."

"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."

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.

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 - Proof/Moonbirds Discord Compromised

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".
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 8:10:00 PM MDT	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.
May 17th, 2022 8:55:00 PM MDT	NFTherder Announces Breach	NFTherder announces a breach on Twitter, and notes that "PXN, RTKFT, [and] Moonbirds discord admin accounts [were] compromised" and "MEE6 was not hacked. Admins in the servers where compromised." He warns users to "not click any fake mints".
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 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 6:32:00 AM MDT	Vice Article Published	Vice publishes an article on the string of NFT Discord channels which have been compromised. TBD add more detail.
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 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.
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.
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".

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?

NFTHerder Reaction After AMA

NFTherder reports that he was not satisfied with the outcome.

Based on the @mee6bot ama I will stop using MEE6 on all future servers:

1) no intentions to refund

2) they won’t release a public statement cause scared of fud

3) employees can still remote access any server

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?

General 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, which may form a fundamental design limitation of Discord or the MEE6 bot system.

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

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

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

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

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

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

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