Just-In: Binance Releases Urgent Patch For BNB Smart Chain After Hack

Binance developers released the temporary urgent patch v1.1.16 for BNB Smart Chain nodes on Tuesday. The patch fixes the cross-chain infrastructure between Beacon Chain and Smart Chain. The cross-chain communication between both chains was disabled after the $100 million cross-chain bridge BSC Token Hub exploit.

Binance Releases Patch to Re-Enable BNB Cross-Chain Services

Binance developers in a tweet on October 11 announces the v1.1.16 temporary urgent patch to mitigate the cross-chain infrastructure between the BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain. The release will re-enable cross-chain communication.

Moreover, the v1.1.16 release is a hard fork for both the testnet and the mainnet. The Moran hard fork upgrade for the mainnet is to happen at block height 22,107,423 on October 12 at around 8 AM UTC. Similarly, the hard fork upgrade for the testnet is to happen at block height 23,603,940 on October 11 at 8 AM UTC.

The upgrade will fix vulnerabilities in the IAVL hash check, introduce a block header in sequence check in CrossChain Contract, and make relayer whitelisted to the genesis.

Therefore, validators need to check and upgrade with the v1.1.16 release immediately. This is an emergency patch to fix the issue and potential risks on BNB Chain. Also, white-hat comments on the release are most welcome. Binance will announce further improvements through wider discussion and governance.

BNB Price Fails to Recover

BNB Price fell over 5% after the cross-chain bridge BSC Token Hub exploit on October 7. However, the BNB price fails to recover and fell over 8% since then. At the time of writing, the price is down over 2% in the last 24 hours and trading at $270.

The developers have confirmed that users will receive their funds once the upgrade is completed. Also, the staking rewards should recover the next day.

The quick response from BSC validators prevented a $570 million BNB exploit. The 2 million BNB tokens created by hackers were blocked by validators. Currently, Binance is working with law enforcement to track hackers.