Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade Lets Hackers Empty Wallets with a Signature! 😱

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Ah, the Ethereum network, always busy upgrading itself like a hyperactive teenager. The latest, “Pectra,” promises a dazzling array of new features aimed at making scalability and smart account functionality the stuff of dreams. But, as with any good plot twist, this shiny new update has also opened the floodgates for hackers, who can now drain your wallet faster than a butler on a 5 PM break – all with just an offchain signature. 👀

Launched on May 7 at epoch 364032 (mark your calendars, folks), Pectra introduced a new transaction type. Now, attackers can take control of your wallet without even needing to coax you into signing an onchain transaction. It’s like they’re swiping your wallet while you’re busy petting your cat. 😒

Enter Arda Usman, a Solidity smart contract auditor, who broke the bad news to CryptoMoon. Apparently, an attacker only needs an offchain signed message (no fancy onchain signatures required) to drain your funds. Yes, you read that right. 🙄

The culprit? EIP-7702, the dazzling new feature of Pectra. This Ethereum Improvement Proposal introduces the SetCode transaction (type 0x04), allowing users to delegate control of their wallets to another contract. And guess what? They only need to sign a message. No big deal, right? Well, until hackers get their hands on that signature. 😬

If a hacker manages to snag this signature—perhaps via a phishing site or some sketchy Discord invite—they can overwrite your wallet’s code with a proxy that forwards calls to their very own malicious contract. How charming! 🕵️‍♂️

“Once the code is set,” says Usman, “the attacker can invoke that code to send your ETH or tokens flying into their own pockets.” All of this, without the user ever signing a regular transfer transaction. Lovely. 😑

Wallets Now Turned Into Programmable Smart Contracts 🖥️

Yehor Rudytsia, an onchain researcher at Hacken, points out that this new transaction type essentially turns your wallet into a programmable smart contract. It’s like your wallet decided to take a leap of faith into the world of self-reliance—and the results are… well, terrifying. 🤖

“This tx type allows users to set arbitrary code to execute operations on their behalf,” Rudytsia explains, like it’s no big deal. Before Pectra, wallets couldn’t be modified without a signature. Now? One simple offchain signature, and boom, the hacker has full control. Poof! Just like that. 🧙‍♂️

Pre-Pectra, users had to sign a transaction to move their funds. Post-Pectra, as Rudytsia so charmingly puts it, “Any operation may be executed from the contract which user approved via SET_CODE.” A transaction signature is now nothing but a distant memory. ✌️

The risks? Oh, they’re as real as your credit card bill. “Pectra activated on May 7, 2025. From that moment, any valid delegation signature is actionable,” warns Usman. Smart contracts that still rely on old assumptions, like tx.origin or basic EOA checks, are now as vulnerable as a balloon at a porcupine convention. 🦔

If your wallet interface doesn’t catch this, you’re in for a bad time. Rudytsia says that wallets are especially vulnerable if they fail to analyze Ethereum’s transaction types—particularly 0x04, which is a fancy way of saying “your money’s going to disappear.” 😱

So, if you get one of those sketchy messages via email, Discord, or a fake DApp, think twice before you sign. It could be the last thing you do. 🧐

Hardware Wallets? Not Safe Anymore. 🙄

Surprise, surprise! Hardware wallets, once the fortress of your crypto empire, are no longer the safe havens they used to be. Rudytsia points out that these gadgets are now at the same risk as your trusty hot wallets. “If done—your funds vanish in an instant,” he warns. Yikes. 🏴‍☠️

So, what can you do to protect yourself, other than donning tinfoil hats and moving to a remote cabin? First, don’t sign messages you don’t understand. Seems simple enough, right? Rudytsia suggests that wallet developers give clear warnings when a delegation message is being signed. Because we all know that half the time, we’re just clicking ‘Accept’ without reading the fine print. 🙈

Special caution should be taken with the new delegation signature formats introduced by EIP-7702. These aren’t compatible with older standards, and they often look like harmless 32-byte hashes. Spoiler alert: they’re not harmless. 🛑

Oh, and if a message includes your account nonce? It’s probably about to mess with your account directly. Because who doesn’t love a little nonce-induced chaos? 😈

Adding insult to injury, EIP-7702 allows for signatures with a chain_id = 0, meaning these malicious messages can be replayed on any Ethereum-compatible chain. Yes, it’s that bad. 👀

While multisignature wallets still stand strong, single-key wallets—whether hardware or otherwise—need to get with the times. They’ll need new signature parsing and red-flagging tools to fend off potential exploitation. 🛡️

Oh, and let’s not forget that Pectra also introduced EIP-7251, which raised Ethereum’s validator staking limit from 32 to 2,048 ETH. Meanwhile, EIP-7691 increases the number of data blobs per block, improving layer-2 scalability. But really, who’s paying attention to that when your wallet’s in danger? 🤷‍♂️

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2025-05-11 16:37