The hacker’s plan was based on the assumption that the exchange had misconfigured its transaction processing software. The incident gained significant attention when Whale Alert, a network security service, reported on social media that an unknown wallet had transferred a staggering 25.6 billion XRP (valued at almost $15 billion) to Bitfinex. This transfer represented nearly half of the total amount of XRP in circulation. Although the post was later deleted, it caused quite a stir within the crypto community.
Ardoino clarified that the attacker aimed to exploit a vulnerability in the XRP registry’s “delivered_amount” field, specifically in the partial payments function. The hacker gambled on Bitfinex’s security systems only considering the “amount” field in XRP transactions. As a result, the attacker specified an unusually high value for this field. However, the actual amount sent was significantly smaller, specified in another transaction field. The intention was to deceive Bitfinex into crediting the attacker with the difference.
Someone attempted to attack @bitfinex via “Partial Payments Exploit”.
Attack failed since Bitfinex properly handles ‘delivered_amount’ data field. https://t.co/EiGw9UQmmq(updated with better gif) https://t.co/8I7vlO05ou pic.twitter.com/DxOnJLLkhU
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) January 14, 2024
During the investigation, it was revealed that the attacker had also targeted Binance, attempting a similar asset theft scenario involving 58.9 billion XRP.
Ardoino emphasized that the involved companies will collaborate closely with US legislative and law enforcement agencies, including compliance with international sanctions against foreign countries.