Flow Security Incident Review: Type Confusion Vulnerability in Cadence Identified as Key Factor
BlockBeats News, January 7th, Folw released an attack event retrospective report, stating that the attacker exploited a Flow Network vulnerability to mint fake tokens, stealing approximately $3.9 million through a bridging attack. This attack did not access or leak any existing user balances. The attack duplicated assets but did not touch legitimately held assets, with the majority of the fake assets either stored on-chain before liquidation or frozen by exchange partners. Network validators have approved a decentralized governance action authorizing the permanent destruction of all fake assets. The network resumed operation on December 29th, is currently running smoothly, and all transaction history has been preserved.
The attacker sequentially deployed over 40 malicious smart contracts, leveraging a three-stage attack chain: 1) bypassing attachment import verification; 2) circumventing defense checks of built-in types; 3) exploiting a contract initializer semantic vulnerability. The root cause was a type confusion vulnerability in the Cadence runtime (v1.8.8), which has now been patched (v1.8.9 and higher versions). This vulnerability allowed the attacker to disguise protected assets (which should not be duplicable) as standard data structures (which are duplicable), bypassing runtime security checks and enabling token minting.
In addition to moving assets out of Flow, the attacker also attempted to deposit fake FLOW on several centralized exchanges, but due to the abnormal transaction volume and internal anti-money laundering protocols, multiple exchanges froze the deposit upon receipt. Approximately 50% of the fake FLOW deposits have been returned and destroyed by cooperating exchanges (such as OKX, Gate, MEXC), while the foundation continues to actively coordinate with other exchange platforms.
You may also like
Argentina vs Cape Verde: When a Record-Breaking Legend Meets an Unbreakable Underdog
WEEX exclusive pre-match analysis of Argentina vs Cape Verde, exploring Messi-led Argentina’s dominance and Cape Verde’s historic defensive breakout, with a breakdown of volatility, structure, and match dynamics.
How does Gate redo "buying and selling stocks" from the cryptocurrency world to the stock market?
Former ByteDance employee's account: How I started with two Pinduoduo hard drives and made six times the profit with Seagate to achieve financial freedom?
Visa and Mastercard join 140 giants to launch a new stablecoin, but the impact on the market landscape may still be limited
WEEX Launches Depth Chart for Spot Trading
MiCA reshuffle begins, Binance temporarily bids farewell to the EU
Raising interest rates to protect STRC and selling coins to maintain credit, this time the strategy has chosen the two most expensive paths
Morning Report | Samsung announces a 265.5 trillion won investment plan, focusing on semiconductor and AI computing power data centers; Vitalik publishes an article detailing the entire technology tree behind the confusion protocol (iO) mainline
In the era of AI, what is left of Bitcoin?
NeoSoul announced plans to integrate with the OKX Agentic Wallet, promoting AI agents' participation in the on-chain economy
Why Is Bitcoin Lagging Stocks in 2026? AI Stocks, ETF Outflows, and the Nasdaq Rally Explained
What you bought on CEX is really not US stocks: Analyzing the 94% liquidation monopoly and the evaporation of equity under a five-layer pipeline
In such a crowded cross-border payment arena, where is the next stop for the future?
Why Is Bitcoin Down in 2026? What We Can Learn From 2022
The large models in the United States are moving towards closure in the name of security
From the white-haired stock god to the billionaire fund mogul, the smart people shorting Nvidia are all getting rich using the same framework
Morning Report | CoinEx becomes a key hub for Iran to evade sanctions, involving over $3.8 billion in funds; Kalshi seeks a new round of financing, with a valuation potentially rising to $40 billion
Global Launch: As predictions become the most scarce asset in the AI era, Manadia is defining the next generation of the value internet
Argentina vs Cape Verde: When a Record-Breaking Legend Meets an Unbreakable Underdog
WEEX exclusive pre-match analysis of Argentina vs Cape Verde, exploring Messi-led Argentina’s dominance and Cape Verde’s historic defensive breakout, with a breakdown of volatility, structure, and match dynamics.

