Cybercriminals Abused API Keys to Steal Millions of Cryptocurrencies

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• Cybercriminals Abused API Keys to Steal Millions of Cryptocurrencies

Cybercriminals misuse API keys to steal millions of cryptocurrencies from unsuspecting merchants, according to a new study from CyberNews. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity in recent years, companies have begun offering apps and other services to facilitate trading. However, to use these services, traders must grant third-party programs access to their cryptocurrency exchange accounts via API keys that allow those programs to perform actions on their behalf, such as opening and executing automated trading orders. These API keys include both a public key and a private key, often referred to as a secret key. This secret key is used by third-party applications to execute trading orders on behalf of a user. However, if a cybercriminal can obtain a user's secret key, then they can steal the cryptocurrency from her. Cryptocurrency exchanges generally provide merchants with three types of API permissions in the form of data permissions, trading permissions, and withdrawal permissions. Data permissions allow APIs to read a user's trading account data, trading permissions allow them to execute trades, place open orders, and close orders, and payment permissions allow them to execute trades, place open orders, and close orders . Allow cryptocurrency to be taken from a user's exchange account and transferred to another location. For security reasons, cryptocurrency exchanges disable withdrawal permissions by default. This is why cybercriminals have used trading authorizations to empty the cryptocurrency wallets of their victims.

API key abuse

During its investigation, CyberNews discovered that cybercriminals were using "sell wall" acquisitions and price gouging to steal funds from merchants. Sell ​​walls are a common market manipulation technique used in both the stock and cryptocurrency markets. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, sell walls are massive market sell orders artificially created by market manipulators to reduce the price of a cryptocurrency or keep it below the maximum threshold to buy lots of cheap pieces. According to the latest report from CyberNews, cybercriminals are using trading bots to open many small sell orders to create sell walls in order to force victims to sell their cryptocurrencies. Price gouging is another commonly used technique to exploit stolen API keys, which involves buying cheap coins and then reselling them to a victim at exorbitant rates. Cybercriminals don't even need to install malware or spyware on a user's device to obtain their API keys, as they instead scan publicly available web application environment files and public code repositories for disclosed private keys. To protect their cryptocurrency, CyberNews recommends merchants whitelist IP addresses for using API keys and avoid storing their API keys on a hard drive or disclosing them to anyone. Another step you could take is to store your cryptocurrency offline instead of using a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano X or Trezor Model T. Via CyberNews