OpenSea is implementing measures to prevent a recent attack methodology that exploits the market’s user interface flaws.
According to Elliptic, a user interface issue on OpenSea recently led to $1M worth of NFTs being bought for very little, then resold at a higher price. At least three persons took advantage of the issue and bought eight NFTs at very low prices.
The security breach occurred when criminals re-listed the NFT at a new price without canceling the earlier listing. The price of the earlier listing was the price paid by the attackers, which was lower than the current prices. An OpenSea spokesperson said the company is “actively reaching out to and reimburse the affected users.” He acknowledged that the user interface was “confused”, with many users’ NFTs selling below their market value.
A Twitter user’s NFT was sold for $1800, which was 99% less than the minimum price. The buyer took advantage and sold it for around $200K, making a profit of $198,200.
OpenSea not publicized UI issue
OpenSea has always used this user interface. But it recently caught the attention of hackers. OpenSea didn’t want criminals likely to be aware of the issue, so they didn’t initially uncover it. The spokesperson said “they wanted to reduce what they previously believed” was not an exploit or a bug—it is an issue that arises because of the nature of the blockchain. He added that the user would have to cancel his/her own listing.
OpenSea takes attack “incredibly seriously”
OpenSea is taking this issue “incredibly seriously”, they are working on improvements. is one of new listing manager Which presents users to view their listings and possibly cancel them. Now, the listing period will be one month instead of six months, so if the NFTs are withdrawn to the wallet after six months, the listing will lapse.
When users transfer an NFT with an active listing from their wallet, they ask them if they want to cancel it. OpenSea will also send an email to the user if they have registered with OpenSea.
In order to cancel an offer to sell, one has to make an on-chain transaction, which many sellers want to avoid due to the high gas fees on Ethereum. Thus, OpenSea users choose to transfer their NFTs to a different wallet.
What did you think of this topic? write to us and let us know,