Doodles NFT Discord Hack

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Doodles NFT

The Doodles NFT are a collection of 10,000 hand-drawn NFT images made by a Canadian artist with the handle "Burnt Toast". The Discord server of the project was hacked on March 31st/April 1st using an exploit in the webhooks for a ticketing system in common use. Viewers of the Discord were promised a great deal on a limited edition mint, however the site they were taken to would authorize the full withdrawal of any remaining assets in their wallets. It is unknown how much was taken, and doesn't appear any was recovered.

About Doodles NFT

Doodles are a collection of colorful NFTs featuring cartoonish figures with unique traits and backgrounds. Created by artist Scott Martin (Burnt Toast), Doodles are made up of 10,000 unique tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection includes 256 traits and 62 hand-drawn Custom Doodles, allowing for endless combinations. Doodles have gained popularity as profile pictures on social media platforms and are known for their droll expressions and vibrant community.

Scott Martin, along with co-founders Evan Keast and Jordan Castro, leads the Doodles project. Martin is an established Canadian artist who has worked with notable companies like WhatsApp, Google, and Snapchat.The organization behind Doodles is focused on igniting imagination and bringing joy through doodling. They create a collectible ecosystem integrated into various entertainment and consumer experiences.

The visual storytelling is a key component of the Doodles experience, capturing hearts and minds with whimsical doodles and intricate illustrations. What sets Doodles apart is their simplicity, uniqueness, and community focus. Each Doodles NFT is a one-of-a-kind portrait with distinct traits, and the left eye is always drawn outside the face boundary. The Doodlebank, funded by creator earnings and managed collectively, supports community initiatives and offshoot collections like Pukenza and Space Doodles. They offer high-quality clothes and toys inspired by the Doodles universe, inviting fans of all ages to join in the adventure and bring a piece of the Doodles world into their lives.

Collectors are drawn to Doodles for their playful aesthetic, support for Burnt Toast's career, and the inclusive and collaborative community. The rarity of specific traits and the ability to influence the project's direction through voting adds value to Doodles NFTs. The project aims to bring wholesome content and NFTs into the mainstream, emphasizing sustainability and community engagement.

Doodle holders can participate in the Doodlebank, a community treasury that funds new initiatives and allows for voting on real-world meetups, collaborations, and philanthropic ventures. Doodles recently participated in events like Something in the Water, where they showcased their Doodle Beach pop-up, collaborated with BBC Ice Cream, and previewed their digital Wearable collection. They are also involved in music and have plans for Doodles Records. Additionally, they provide the opportunity for users to create their own Doodles through The Stoodio, offering digital collectibles with unique visual traits.

Doodle Planet Mint Announced

The Doodles NFT Discord announced the launching of a limited supply Doodle Planet NFT.

"Lift off has completed, and we are now ready to land! Mint your Doodle Planet Now! Supply 500 Limited amount! Mint 0.05 ETH. Genesis has a limited supply, be quick! Be sure to approve when minting to ensure the transaction goes through!"

The Reality

"Security breaches and data attacks on crypto firms have seen a drastic rise in the last few months. A couple of days ago, the BAYC team confirmed that their Discord servers were compromised, and the hackers even managed to steal a valuable Mutant ApeYacht Club (MAYC) NFT."

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

Those community members who clicked on the fraudulent Doodles NFT mint found that their NFTs were stolen.

Key Event Timeline - Doodles NFT Discord Hack

Date	Event	Description
March 31st, 2022 10:27:00 PM MDT	ZachXBT Report On Massive Theft	Twitter user ZachXBT reports on the theft of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and 2 Doodle NFTs to a different account labelled Fake_Phishing5517 on Etherscan. According to his tweet at the time, this is related to a verified Twitter Bored Ape Yacht Club scam, and unrelated to the Discord phishing channel. He provides multiple examples of phishing tweets. TBD can we reconcile whether this is related or not?
March 31st, 2022 11:02:00 PM MDT	Bored Ape Yacht Club #3738 Reported Stolen	Twitter user WuBlockchain reports that the Bored Ape Yacht Club #3738 NFT was stolen from Chinese singer Jay Chou through a phishing site, referencing an Instagram post. This appears to be due to a phishing attack on the Doodles NFT Discord.
March 31st, 2022 11:24:00 PM MDT	0xGav.eth Reports Hack on Twitter	Twitter user oxGav.eth reports the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord is hacked.
March 31st, 2022 11:52:00 PM MDT	ZachXBT Reports Hack	Twitter user ZachXBT reports about the Discord hack on Twitter, showing a screenshot of the hack.
March 31st, 2022 11:54:00 PM MDT	ZachXBT Similarities Noted	Twitter user ZachXBT reports on the similarities between the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord post and the Doodles Discord post, suspecting that the same group is behind both attacks.
April 1st, 2022 12:46:00 AM MDT	Serpent Reports Ticket Tool Hack	Twitter user Serpent (formerly SerpentAU) makes another post that it's "100% CONFIRMED" that "TICKET TOOL IS HACKED" along with screenshots of an "AUDIT LOG FROM DOODLES & SHAMANZS".
April 1st, 2022 1:22:00 AM MDT	sv3nsei Reports Multiple Bots Hacked	Twitter user sv3nsei reports a list of hacked Discords (including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, Kaiju Kingz, Shamanzs, and Zooverse NFT) and a list of hacked Discord bots including Arcane Bot, Captcha Bot, and Ticket Tool Bot.
April 1st, 2022 1:34:00 AM MDT	Ticket Tool Posts Tweet	Ticket Tool posts an update Tweet that the problem was a recent update that "had a bug allowing for some type of permission exploit". The developer reported that he "reverted the update to the previous uncompromised version and will be looking into exactly how this happened".
April 1st, 2022 1:46:00 AM MDT	Nightwalkerx07 Tweet About Hacks	Twitter user Nightwalkert07 tweets about the attacks against Bored Ape Yach Club, Doodles NFT, and Kaiju Kingz.
April 1st, 2022 2:06:00 AM MDT	Ticket Tool Posts Tweet Again	Ticket Tool again posts the same update (with no further clarification) in response to the thread by Jon_HQ. This would be their last post for many months.
April 1st, 2022 2:34:00 AM MDT	FXEmpire Article Published	FXEmpire publishes an article on the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Doodle both being attacked. TBD more information.
April 1st, 2022 9:04:34 AM MDT	Crypto News Flash Article Published	Crypto News Flash publishes an article on Bored Ape Yacht Club exploit. They include two contradictory valuations of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT #8662 at $67,423 USD and 21 ETH worth $68,900 USD. It includes the Tweet by the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a screenshot of the phishing link posted in the Discord channel, and that ticket tool is responsible. The attacks on other NFT projects including Doodles, Shamanzs, and Nyoki are briefly in closing.
April 1st, 2022 12:35:00 PM MDT	Vice News Article Published	Vice News publishes an article on the situation, which includes that the Discord channels of platforms including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Nyoki, Shamanz, Doodles, and Kaiju Kingz were all hacked. It provides an excerpt of some of the phishing posts, some basic blockchain analysis, and mention of some other Discord attacks.
April 2nd, 2022 9:12:00 AM MDT	Serpent Requesting Code Inspection	Serpent requests to be unbanned from the Ticket Tool discord and that he be allowed to look at the source code to get more information. His Tweet does not appear to have ever been responded to.
April 2nd, 2022 5:23:48 PM MDT	CryptoHubK Article Published	CryptoHubK published a summary of the situation. It is reported that hackers gained access to the Discord of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Mutant Ape Kennel Club. The article included the PeckShield alert. Some information is later included on the Doodle NFT Discord attack, and the suggestion that this was responsible for the loss of Jay Chou's BAYC #3738. The article also includes general information on other Discord hacks, however it appears to incorrectly state the dates as March 1st for other attacks.
April 4th, 2022 10:39:11 AM MDT	Tech Radar Article Published	TechRadar publishes an article on the situation. It includes Bored Ape Yacht Club, Nyoki, Shamanz, Doodles, and Kaiju Kingz. An example of the phishing tweet on Bored Ape Yacht Club is provided, as well as the response by Noyki Club. It gives some background on the NFT minting process, and mentions that all projects were quick to react to the situation. Information about the wallets were also included.
April 4th, 2022 10:48:00 AM MDT	Candid Technology Article Published	Candid Technology publishes an article on the situation. The article mentions Bored Ape Yacht Club, Nyoki, and Shamanzs as victims, as well as referencing attacks on Doodles and Kaiju Kingz as reported by ZachXBT. The reactions by platforms Nyoki Club and Bored Ape Yacht Club were included, as well as wallet addresses Fake_Phishing5519 and Fake_Phishing5520 and some of the attempts at mixing the proceeds.
May 6th, 2022 5:45:00 AM MDT	Serpent Bribery Accusation	Twitter user Serpent reports that he is "[s]till waiting for an update" and "highly believe[s] this was a bribe".
June 2nd, 2022 9:05:00 PM MDT	Ticket Tool Launches Video Series	In their first Tweet since the hack (after nearly 2 months of silence), Ticket Tool says it's "been a long time" and introduces users to watch the first "official video from [their] tutorial series" about how to set up Ticket Tool.

Technical Details

TBD

Breaching Discord Channel

The Ticket Tool Discord plug-in was implicated in the attack.

"According to Serpent, the Ticket Tool was the real source of the hack."

Promotional Effectiveness

Mini planets. TBD

Malicious Website

TBD

"[T]he Discord of another NFT collection, Doodle, was also attacked."

Outcome of Fund Trail

Attackers wallet is reportedly included FakePhishing_5519 and FakePhishing_5520.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

Attackers wallet is reportedly included FakePhishing_5519 and FakePhishing_5520.

The scammer's wallet includes transactions from multiple Discord breaches which happened simultaneously. TBD - can we somehow determine the amount of loss for each case?

An article from CryptoHubK suggests that the losses included Bored Ape Yacht Club #3738.

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?

"Both of the phishing sites are very similar. It has to be the same group behind Doodles & BAYC."

Speculation Regarding Captcha Bot

"The user also stated that according to the inside information received from the hackers, the official Captcha Bot was also hacked and that the source code had been stolen."

"I have received inside information from one of the hackers. THE OFFICIAL CAPTCHA BOT IS HACKED, REMOVE IT FROM YOUR SERVER. BAYC & Doodles have already been hacked within the last 30 minutes but MANY MORE SERVERS WILL BE HACKED."

"This is not 100% confirmed to be the root cause of these hacks but remove it from your servers to stay safe and use a different verification bot."

"I was told that the owner of Captcha Bot (ImDarkDiamond) was compromised and the source code was stolen (This part is 100% confirmed)" "Last I was told, owner of captcha bot was hacked, the source code was stolen and they were going to extort him. The bot doesn't seem compromised currently but I would still stay far away from it. REAL source of the hack is 100% confirmed to be Ticket Tool." "Security researchers said a ticketing tool that checks users and sends out notifications across the channel has been compromised."

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

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

Launch of Doodles 2

Doodles Launches Doodles 2:

Individual Prevention Policies

It is recommended to be extremely cautious of any links posted on Discord, given the repeated breaches of official accounts using the platform. Users need to be cautious with any posted links. Always check any communication against multiple official sources of a project before proceeding.

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?

Store the majority of funds offline. By offline, it means that the private key and/or seed phrase is exclusively held by you and not connected to any networked device. Examples of offline storage include paper wallets (seed phrase or key written down and deleted from all electronic media), hardware wallets, steel wallet devices, etc...

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

Platform Prevention Policies

Platforms should be extremely cautious regarding the permissions which are granted via Discord, and limit the access levels to critical functionality. Discord should improve their security and offer multi-signature permissions for key functions. Ideally, public groups should be managed from an exclusive account which isn't used for anything else.

Ideally, performing key actions such as banning moderators or posting global announcements would be set up such that multiple approvals are required. In this way, it would be much more challenging to breach, particularly when combined with security training.

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.

All wallets, minting functions, and critical infrastructure should be implemented with a multi-signature requirement, with a recommended minimum of 3 signatures required. This means that making important changes or approving spending will require the keys held by at least 3 separate individuals within the organization to approve. The multi-signature should be implemented at the lowest layer possible, all key holders should have security training, and all key holders should be empowered and encouraged to exercise diligence.

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.

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

Training platform operators can help avoid incidents such as these, and requiring the approval of two separate security sign-offs prior to a project to launch would likely catch any weak security practices.

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.

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.

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.