79th Vault Hot-Wallet Compromised, $12.5 Million Lost

The incident involved the operator hot-wallet private key of 79th Vault being compromised. The attacker utilized an OPERATOR_ROLE function to move 2.01 million 79AU tokens from the PancakeSwap 79AU/USDT pair through seven transfers. Following this, the attacker conducted approximately 95 swaps, drastically reducing the pool’s USDT reserves from around $15,200,000 to about $3,900,000. Ultimately, the attacker cashed out 16,249 BNB, which was valued at about $12,500,000 at the time of the incident.

In addition to the token transfers, the same compromised operator key sent 3.79 BNB to the attacker address just forty-one seconds after the initial transactions. This rapid succession of actions indicates a well-coordinated attack that exploited the privileges associated with the OPERATOR_ROLE function. The loss of $12,500,000 represents a significant financial impact on the 79th Vault, highlighting the risks associated with hot-wallet management and key security.