The Stars Arena Web3 social media application running on the Avalanche network recently suffered a loss of funds due to a malicious attack, as reported on social media platforms. The vulnerability was discovered by a user with the handle Lilitch.eth on October 5, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the incident, claiming a loss of over $1 million. The Stars Arena team acknowledged the attack, characterizing it as a "war" against their application. They stated that the attack resulted in approximately $2,000 in damages and that they have since patched the vulnerability.
Stars Arena, similar to Friend.tech, allows users to purchase "shares," which are tokenized assets issued by content creators. These tokens can grant owners access to exclusive content or other privileges. Since the launch of Stars Arena, the Avalanche network has witnessed a significant increase in activity, with daily transaction volume surging by over 186% between October 3 and 4.
On October 5, Lilitch.eth claimed that the attacker had placed Stars Arena's tokenized assets "up for sale." In a post, they shared a screenshot revealing a smart contract containing around 107,329 AVAX tokens, valued at over $1 million at the time. In response to this revelation, some users accused Lilitch.eth of spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), contending that the attack was impractical for profit due to high transaction fees and smart contract dynamics.
The Stars Arena team swiftly addressed the situation by posting on X that they had fixed the bug. They alleged that the attacker had spent $5 in gas fees to siphon $1 from the application, characterizing it as an attempt to undermine their credibility through coordinated FUD. The team further clarified that only about $2,000 was lost in the attack.
In response, Lilitch.eth disputed the claim that the attacker spent $5 in gas fees to extract $1, arguing that attackers would cease their activities once gas prices made the attack unprofitable. Lilitch.eth also denied any intent to wage a "war" against the application and expressed support for Stars Arena, stating that the conflict had been resolved amicably.
In a broader context, Friend.tech users have been grappling with a series of SIM swapping attacks, causing concerns among users of similar applications. On October 5th, the Friend.tech team implemented a feature allowing users to remove login methods to address these issues.
