Experts urge users to temporarily delay interaction with protocols as over 120 cryptocurrency platforms frontends may be vulnerable to DNS attacks

Experts urge users to temporarily delay interaction with protocols as over 120 cryptocurrency platforms frontends may be vulnerable to DNS attacks

Experts urge users to temporarily delay interaction with protocols as over 120 cryptocurrency platforms frontends may be vulnerable to DNS attacks

According to a report by The Defiant, experts are urging Web3 users to avoid interacting with the front-end interfaces of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols due to the domain migration related to Squarespace’s acquisition of Google’s domain business, which may result in DNS attacks on many websites.

The domain migration has caused the two-factor authentication (2FA) of websites previously managed by Google to become ineffective, making the front-end domains of DeFi protocols Compound Finance, Pendle Finance, and cross-chain protocol Celer Network vulnerable to attacks. These three protocols have individually stated that their domains are secure on the X platform.

Bobby Ong, co-founder of cryptocurrency information platform CoinGecko, said:

Founder of blockchain data platform DeFi Llama, 0xngmi, shared a list of over 120 potentially vulnerable DeFi domains, stating, “This is a list of all domains shared by the registrant, so they may be at risk of being attacked by hackers.”

The front-end user interface (UI) allows users to interact with DeFi protocols through a typical graphical user interface (GUI) hosted on web domains. While the front-end of DeFi projects may be susceptible to attacks, this incident does not affect the underlying web3 backend protocols that facilitate server-side operations, databases, and application logic.

Domain migration:

Google sold its domain business to Squarespace in June 2023. However, it wasn’t until two days ago on July 10th that the relevant websites were migrated from Google to Squarespace.

The domain owners seemed unaware that their two-factor authentication would be disabled during the migration process, leaving many domains vulnerable to potential DNS attacks. Attackers are able to redirect DNS records of popular DeFi front-end websites to malicious addresses for hosting wallet attacks and phishing attacks.

Inferno Drainer is designed to deceive unsuspecting users into approving malicious transactions, transferring victims’ funds to the hackers’ wallets. Pendle explained this incident by stating: