The Zano project team decided to roll back its blockchain by one month following a security breach. An attacker exploited a vulnerability in the Gateway Address to generate 36.9 million ZANO tokens and an undisclosed amount of Freedom Dollar tokens. The team stated that these unauthorized coins were indistinguishable from legitimate assets, making a full rollback the only way to remove them from circulation.
The attacker first triggered the exploit on August 29, creating 18.4 million ZANO in a single transaction. A second minting of another 18.4 million ZANO occurred on September 25. The perpetrator spent 100 ZANO, valued at approximately $553, to set up the exploit. The team noted that the initial unauthorized minting went undetected for nearly a month before internal systems flagged the activity after the second incident.
Zano reported that standard security measures, including AI-assisted testing, internal audits, and bug bounty programs, failed to identify the vulnerability. The project is now working to restore affected balances using a combination of developer funds, personal contributions from team members, and other commitments. Recovery efforts are focused on exchanges and payment services to address the impact of the reversed transactions.
