Author: HotWater

Against the backdrop of the rapid rise of decentralized finance (DeFi), projects such as Gnosis, Safe, and Cow, which are considered "OG-level" in the Ethereum ecosystem, have long enjoyed a high reputation. They manage huge asset treasuries, with reserves of billions of dollars in Bitcoin and Ethereum, making them both industry focal points and potential targets for hackers. Recent Twitter messages have suggested that Gnosis/Safe may be facing a potential "storm" with exchanges or service providers such as Bybit, hinting at security vulnerabilities related to the North Korean hacker group, which has attracted widespread attention in the community.

I. The History and Status of Safe (Gnosis Safe)

Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) is a representative multi-sig asset management tool in the Gnosis ecosystem. The Gnosis project initially focused on prediction markets and gradually expanded into custody, asset management, and other businesses. The core idea of Safe is that for organizations or individuals with huge digital assets, relying on a single private key is not secure, and multi-signature or smart contract preset rules are necessary to better prevent internal fraud or external attacks.

As a result, Safe is widely used in the Ethereum and cross-chain ecosystems: many DAOs, foundations, and large NFT projects view it as a "safe deposit box" style underlying custody solution. It is not only an "old-fashioned" tool, but has also been integrated into various decentralized applications, and has spawned various extended functions (such as social recovery, hardware wallet support, etc.). This core position has made Safe a "vault" in the eyes of hackers.

II. Potential Infiltration by North Korean Hacker Groups

North Korean hacker groups (the most well-known being the "Lazarus" group) have been repeatedly exposed in recent years to be involved in cross-border money laundering, bank system attacks, and exchange theft. They are often skilled and stealthy, adept at infiltrating target systems through social engineering, phishing emails, and contract vulnerabilities. For them, the openness and cross-chain liquidity of the DeFi world is actually an advantage: as long as they find a breakthrough, they can quickly transfer funds to multiple chains and then perform mixing operations, making tracking extremely difficult.

In major financial centers in Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, there are also constant rumors of "North Korean agents disguised as ordinary job seekers or investment advisors trying to establish contact with project executives." Once these "infiltrators" gain the trust of the core team or obtain key permissions, they may directly manipulate the multi-signature process of smart contracts or steal private key information, causing serious asset losses.

III. Multiple Vulnerabilities in Web3 Security

1. Technical Level

Decentralized applications are emerging endlessly, but the security audit and protection system often cannot keep up with the pace of innovation. While multi-signature is an important way to enhance security, it may also have vulnerabilities such as contract loopholes, signature process errors, and improper internal permission management. If the underlying multi-signature tool like Safe is breached, almost all DAOs and projects that rely on it for asset management will face severe blows.

2. Partner Level

The DeFi ecosystem is intertwined: a DAO may collaborate with multiple exchanges, custody services, and cross-chain protocols, and also share liquidity or conduct token swaps with other projects. This means that any negligence in security review by any party can open a gap for hackers. For example, some "partners" disguised as third-party service providers may actually be controlled by North Korean hackers, and once they gain access to internal systems, it may lead to a chain reaction.

3. Social Engineering and Human Weaknesses

Like traditional financial crimes, hacker groups still rely most on "social engineering" - whether it's phishing emails or "parachuting beauties", as long as they can gain the trust of key team members or system access rights, all technical barriers become futile. In a globalized, remote-collaborative Web3 environment, people are more likely to overlook the necessity of identity verification and background investigation.

IV. If an Attack Occurs, What Will the Impact Be?

• Financial Loss: The scale of the treasuries managed by Safe is extremely large, and if a major attack occurs, tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in assets may be stolen.
• Market Confidence: If a fatal vulnerability appears in the multi-signature system, user confidence in the security of DeFi will be severely shaken, which may trigger panic redemptions or sell-offs, causing price volatility and market turmoil.
• Regulatory Intervention: Major hacking incidents often attract the attention of regulators in various countries, accelerating the compliance and control process for the crypto industry. Sanctions on North Korean-related forces will also be upgraded, affecting the cross-border business of more exchanges and projects.
• Industry Ecosystem: If a leading project or infrastructure (such as Safe) is compromised, the dependent parties will be forced to seek alternative solutions or take emergency measures, and the compatibility and collaboration between DeFi protocols may also be impacted.

V. Response and Prevention: Collaboration from Multiple Parties

1. Technical Upgrades

• Strengthen smart contract audits, covering multi-signature contracts, cross-chain bridges, application-layer protocols, and multiple dimensions.
• Explore new technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and hardware signing to add more firewalls to the multi-signature process.

2. Team and Community Management

• Conduct strict KYC and background checks on partners, outsourced teams, and consultants to eliminate potential "spies" or "agents".
• Implement the principle of least privilege within the team, avoiding any individual or single department having excessive authority.

3. Continuous Monitoring and Emergency Response

• Deploy real-time monitoring systems, and immediately trigger risk control mechanisms or community voting if abnormal transfers or large authorizations are detected.
• Establish emergency multi-signature withdrawal or freezing functions to prevent assets from being fully transferred in seconds.

4. Collaboration with Cross-Chain and Exchanges

• Exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and custodians should establish rapid response mechanisms to quickly freeze or mark suspicious addresses and prevent hackers from "getting away with it" after transferring assets.
• The industry can establish an alliance to share information and manage blacklists of malicious contract addresses and potential threat entities.

VI. Conclusion

The reason why projects like Gnosis, Safe, and Cow have become industry focal points is not only due to their technical capabilities and huge assets, but also because they represent the core values of decentralization, autonomy, and innovation in the Web3 era. The potential infiltration by North Korean hacker groups warns us that behind the openness and freedom, a strong security defense still needs to be established. Whether at the technical, governance, or compliance level, more rigorous deployment and collaboration are required.

This "DeFi vs. state-sponsored hackers" battle has just begun. To truly safeguard the future of Web3, projects like Safe not only need to maintain technological leadership and security audits, but also need to collaborate with the community, exchanges, and regulatory agencies to establish an effective global security mechanism. Only in this way can decentralized finance truly thrive, and allow all participants to venture confidently into this new "digital continent".