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How the NEAR's Rainbow Bridge was able to repel an attack

Updated: Jul 25, 2024
Published: May 2, 2022
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A malicious actor attacked the NEAR Protocol Rainbow Bridge on May 1, but the attacker failed due to how the bridge was designed.

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The failed attack on Rainbow Bridge

According to Alex Shevchenko, CEO of Aurora Labs, in a detailed post, the attempt began on May 1, with the attacker deploying a contract that was supposed to deposit some funds to become a Rainbow Bridge relayer. The plan was to send fraudulent light client blocks. After a while, one bridge watchdog determined that the submitted block was not on the NEAR Protocol blockchain and sent a challenge transaction to Ethereum.

MEV bots discovered this transaction and calculated that front-running it would result in a 2.5 ETH gain. As a result, the watchdog transaction failed, but the MEV bot transaction succeeded and rolled back the attacker's fabricated block, resulting in a 2.5 ETH loss for the attacker with no funds stolen. While the attack failed, the project will investigate additional security measures to make it more robust.

The significance of its design

Rainbow Bridge is a cross-chain bridge that enables users to transfer assets across the Ethereum, NEAR, and Aurora networks. When users want to transfer funds to Ethereum, the Rainbow Bridge is distinguished from other bridges by the presence of an Optimistic bridge. An optimistic bridge design includes independent parties monitoring network behavior; these observers were critical in protecting the Rainbow bridge.

Another bridge with a similar design, Nomad, recently raised $22 million in a seed round, and it, too, uses optimistic proofs to secure its bridge. The attack marked the first time an optimistic bridge design was seen in action, demonstrating that it could be a solution to recent bridge hacks.

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