Enigma Hack

Reported loss $500K
Other

What happened

On August 21, 2017, attackers compromised Enigma's public website, Slack community, and mailing-list communications ahead of its token sale. They impersonated the project and directed prospective contributors to send ETH to an attacker-controlled address. Contemporary reporting tracked 1,492 ETH, worth about $494,171 at the time; Enigma said its own company and investor funds were not compromised and later said it would help affected community members with claims.

How it happened

  1. Attackers obtained access to Enigma's landing-page and Slack-related accounts through compromised team credentials; reporting noted missing two-factor authentication as part of the account-security failure.
  2. They altered the public website, posted messages in Slack, and sent spoofed messages to the community mailing list.
  3. The messages promoted a fraudulent pre-sale and supplied an attacker-controlled ETH address, causing prospective contributors to transfer funds there.
  4. Enigma took its website and Slack community offline, moved updates to other channels, and announced stronger credential, two-factor-authentication, access-control, and compartmentalization measures.

Protocol details

Classification Other
Protocol Type Exploit/Other
Protocol links Website @EnigmaMPC

Build your security review skills

Work through hands-on labs covering real exploit mechanics, review techniques, and defensive patterns.