Alex Shevchenko, co-founder of Aurora, announced that his team has identified the hacker responsible for the NEAR Intents exploit. The attack on the cross-chain swap service occurred on October 1, resulting in the loss of $3.8 million in assets.
Shevchenko issued a public ultimatum, giving the attacker 48 hours to return the stolen funds. The message includes specific wallet addresses for Bitcoin, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Solana for the repayment process. The Aurora co-founder suggested that the hacker should utilize responsible disclosure practices, which typically involve reporting vulnerabilities in exchange for a bounty.
The team has not disclosed the identity of the hacker or the methods used for tracking. It remains unclear what actions will follow if the deadline passes without the return of the funds. Aurora operates an Ethereum-compatible network built on the NEAR Protocol.
This incident follows a previous exploit involving Rhea Finance, a decentralized finance hub on NEAR, which occurred in April. That attack resulted in losses of $18.4 million. In that instance, the attacker eventually returned a portion of the assets, including 3.36 million USDC, 1.56 million NEAR, and $4.4 million in Zcash, while Tether froze $3.29 million in USDT.
