Kraken crypto exchange faces extortion attempt from security researchers
On June 9, 2024, Kraken, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, received an alarming Bug Bounty report. The report, submitted by a security researcher, claimed to have discovered an “extremely critical” bug that allowed balance inflation. However, what initially seemed like a routine vulnerability report quickly turned into an extortion attempt. While investigating the bug report, a team led by Nick Percoco, Kraken’s Chief Security Officer, identified a $3 million exploit. Specifically, the executive addressed the whole situation in a thread on X (formerly Twitter), posted on June 19. Kraken Security Update: On June 9 2024, we received a Bug Bounty program alert from a security researcher. No specifics were initially disclosed, but their email claimed to find an “extremely critical” bug that allowed them to artificially inflate their balance on our platform. — Nick Percoco (@c7five) June 19, 2024 Notably, the investigation revealed that three a...