Crypto Terms:
Letter I
What is Infinite Mint Attack?
Meaning:
Infinite Mint Attack -
an attack when a hacker or an unwanted entity mints an infinite amount of tokens within a protocol.
Let's find out Infinite Mint Attack meaning, definition in crypto, what is Infinite Mint Attack, and all other detailed facts.
An infinite mint attack happens when a malicious entity or hacker mints an excessive number of tokens within a protocol, inflating the supply to an unhealthy level and cheapening the value of each token. After that, the attacker usually drops minted tokens on the market which causes price crashes. This type of attack usually happens quickly and results in the attacker walking away with millions of dollars in tokens.
Blockchain systems are vulnerable to infinite mint attacks due to the security issues that allow hackers to take advantage of bugs and other code flaws. A chain of smart contract audits from diverse firms is the strongest defense against infinite mint attacks. Though audits do not guarantee that the protocol is totally safe.
To give you an example, in the Cover Protocol’s attack, hackers exploited a bug in the mining contract to create an infinite number of COVER tokens and drain almost $4.4 million from the project. The hacker was able to take advantage of 40 quintillion tokens on the Cover staking pool, leading the token price to collapse by 97%.
smart contracts<\/a> to spend an unlimited amount of funds on a user’s account<\/strong>. In most cases, smart contracts are authorized to use a specific amount of funds. However, when an infinite approval is established, a smart contract asks to be granted access to an unlimited number of coins or tokens stored in the user’s account.<\/p>\n<p>In the cryptocurrency world, <strong>this practice is quite controversial<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>To understand infinite approval better, let’s have a look at a real-life example with Bancor.<\/p>\n<p>In order to be able to use the services, one of Bancor’s users had authorized smart contracts so they could withdraw any amount of tokens from his account. However, unknowing to him, the smart contracts he had just authorized, were a major security risk. This type of vulnerability could have been exploited by hackers to get away with all of his tokens.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, this didn’t happen since Bancor became aware of this issue and made relevant changes. In this situation, the developer team ensured that the smart contracts will never ask for an unlimited amount of tokens during authorizations again. In order to make sure the user doesn’t lose his funds, Bancor’s programmers had to “steal” the user’s tokens and return them at a later time.<\/p>\n<p>This incident brought out the fact that many <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-are-decentralized-applications-dapps/">decentralized applications (dApps)<\/strong><\/a> used infinite or overly large approvals. It included Compound, Uniswap, bZX, Aave, Kyber, dYdX, and many other platforms whose programmers practiced infinite approvals.<\/p>","definition":"is defined as the action of programming smart contracts to allow spending an unlimited amount of coins or tokens.","status":"published","meta_title":"What is Infinite Approval? Definition & Meaning | Crypto Wiki","meta_description":"Infinite Approval meaning: Infinite Approval - is defined as the action of programming smart contracts to allow spending an unlimited amount of coins or tokens.","meta_keywords":null}"
:model="{"id":405,"wikipedia_url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blockchain","level":"easy","author_id":1,"created_at":"2023-06-19T06:58:59.000000Z","updated_at":"2023-12-12T07:03:44.000000Z","slug":"what-is-infinite-mint-attack","title":"What is Infinite Mint Attack?","section":"I","keyword":"Infinite Mint Attack","content":"<p><strong>An infinite mint attack<\/strong> happens when a malicious entity or hacker <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-minting/">mints an excessive number of <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-token/">tokens <strong>within a protocol<\/strong>, inflating the supply to an unhealthy level and cheapening the value of each token. After that, the attacker usually drops minted tokens on the market which causes price crashes. This type of attack usually <strong>happens quickly<\/strong> and results in the attacker walking away with millions of dollars in tokens.<\/p>\n<p><a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-blockchain/">Blockchain systems<\/strong><\/a> are vulnerable to infinite mint attacks due to the security issues that allow hackers to take advantage of bugs <strong>and other code flaws<\/strong>. A chain of <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-smart-contract-audit/">smart contract audits<\/strong><\/a> from diverse firms is the strongest defense against infinite mint attacks. Though audits do not guarantee that the protocol is totally safe.<\/p>\n<p>To give you an example, in the <strong>Cover Protocol’s attack<\/strong>, hackers exploited a bug in the <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-mining-contract/">mining contract<\/strong><\/a> to create an infinite number of COVER tokens and drain almost $4.4 million from the project. The hacker was able to take advantage of 40 quintillion tokens on the Cover <a href=https://www.bitdegree.org/"//crypto//learn//crypto-terms//what-is-staking-pool/">staking pool<\/strong><\/a>, leading the token price to collapse by 97%.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>","definition":"an attack when a hacker or an unwanted entity mints an infinite amount of tokens within a protocol.","status":"published","meta_title":"What is Infinite Mint Attack? Definition & Meaning | Crypto Wiki","meta_description":"Infinite Mint Attack meaning: Infinite Mint Attack - an attack when a hacker or an unwanted entity mints an infinite amount of tokens within a protocol.","meta_keywords":null,"author":{"id":1,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2023-05-03T14:30:55.000000Z","updated_at":"2023-05-11T07:18:20.000000Z","title":"Editor-In-Chief","slug":"aaron-s-editor-in-chief","description":"<p>Having completed a Master’s degree on Economics, Politics & Culture for the East Asia region, Aaron has written scientific papers with a comparative analysis of the differences between US’ Western and Japan’s Collective forms of capitalism, 1945-2020.<\/p>\n<p>With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.<\/p>","user":{"id":1,"first_name":"Aaron","last_name":"S.","email":"aaron@bitdegree.org","email_sanitized":"aaron@bitdegree.org","email_verified_at":"2023-12-01T09:40:20.000000Z","must_verify_email":false,"is_registered_with_wallet":false,"status":"active","country":"LT","last_connected_ip":"88.119.132.125","image_id":2641,"referral_token":"05TMu2NysXOCn525","referred_by":null,"created_at":"2023-05-03T14:30:55.000000Z","updated_at":"2024-01-09T15:22:21.000000Z","full_name":"Aaron S."}}}"
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current-chapter="I"
current-section="what-is-infinite-mint-attack">
