Gala Games Massive Unauthorized Mint

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Gala Games Logo/Homepage

Gala Games is a blockchain entertainment platform emphasizes community involvement and ownership, promising innovative experiences in Web3 entertainment. They aim to empower players with engaging games, liberate music through blockchain decentralization, and foster collaboration between film enthusiasts and creators. However, they recently faced a security breach where an individual exploited a dormant MINTER account, minting and selling a significant amount of GALA tokens. Gala Games responded by freezing the impacted wallet, affirming the security of their ETH contract, and initiating collaboration with law enforcement agencies for further investigation and prevention of future breaches. They reassure their commitment to security and transparency while promising updates on the investigation progress. The additional minted tokens have now been burned.

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

About Gala Games

"Experiences built around the joy of community and ownership. Together, we are a community-uplifting powerhouse defining new frontiers in Web3 entertainment."

"Giving back power to the players with games they’ll actually want to play." "Setting music free on the blockchain. A decentralized world for music that empowers artists and fans." "Entertainment like never before. Giving film fans and filmmakers a true sense of collaboration in the films they love."

"Possible hacker seized control of an admin address to mint a whopping 5 billion GALA tokens worth $216 million, rapidly offloading 592 million tokens for $21.8 million in ETH before Gala Games could blacklist the rogue address."

"According to the attack breakdown by Hacken, the exploit involved an “Access Control” attack vector, where a malicious actor gained control over a dormant MINTER account on the GALA token contract that had not been used for 180 days."

"The exploiter started exchanging the freshly minted GALA for ETH, executing transactions up to 100 ETH."

"Benefactor from Gala noted that the ETH contract for GALA is secure and under the protection of a multi-sig wallet and was never compromised.

Going on to state “we believe we have identified the culprit and we are currently working with the FBI, DOJ and a network of international authorities.”"

"The security incident involving the $GALA token has been contained and the impacted wallet has been frozen.

This was an isolated incident, the cause of which has been addressed and we are working closely with law enforcement to investigate the individuals behind the breach.

Gala is committed to maintaining the highest standards of security and transparency. We will provide updates as the investigation continues and take all necessary steps to prevent future incidents."

"once authorities are involved I don't believe they can really be called off."

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

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 - Gala Games Massive Unauthorized Mint

Date	Event	Description
May 20th, 2024 1:32:11 PM MDT	Attack Transaction	The time of the attack happening, which is a transfer of 5,000,000,001 Gala to the exploiter.�
May 20th, 2024 3:14:00 PM MDT	Blocklist Ability Noted	A post by Jesse Hynes notes that Gala Games has the ability to blocklist particular addresses.
May 20th, 2024 3:48:11 PM MDT	Blocklist Invoked	The blocklist function is invoked against the attacker wallet.
May 20th, 2024 3:52:00 PM MDT	Blocklist Noted	A public commentary by TheVultureTrade notes that the blocklist has been applied.
May 20th, 2024 5:27:00 PM MDT	Benefactor Thread	Benefactor states that they messed up their "internal controls" and "[w]e identified the compromise and within 45 minutes we secured and removed unauthorized access to the $GALA contract."
May 20th, 2024 7:22:00 PM MDT	Containment Post	An update on the Gala Games Twitter account stated that they considered the issue contained since the impacted wallet has been frozen, and that the protocol was now working with law enforcement to investigate the individuals behind the breach.
May 21st, 2024 6:43:59 AM MDT	Funds Returned	The exploiter returns the funds via the blockchain.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount at risk has been estimated at $216,000,000 USD. The total amount lost has been estimated at $21,800,000 USD.

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 has been estimated at $21,800,000 USD.

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

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.