As a seasoned crypto investor with over a decade of experience in the blockchain space, I find the recent revelation about the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) of Cosmos Hub deeply concerning. The fact that developers with confirmed links to North Korea were involved in its creation and integration into the Cosmos Hub without proper security vetting is alarming.
All in Bits (AiB), the brainchild behind Cosmos, has sounded a critical warning. It appears that the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) within the Cosmos Hub could potentially harbor significant security threats as it was initially developed by individuals with ties to North Korea.
AI-Brain suspects that the developers’ contributions weren’t thoroughly checked for security before being added to the Cosmos Hub, which has sparked concerns about possible weaknesses or threats.
Developers With Confirmed Links to North Korea
Originally conceived in 2021 by Iqlusion, a validator hosting firm led by Zaki Manian, along with collaborations from Stride Labs, Binary Builders, and Informal Systems, the LSM was designed to make changes within crucial Cosmos modules such as staking, distribution, and slashing. Now, as it gets integrated into the Cosmos Hub through Gaia, there’s a possibility that any detected vulnerabilities could potentially affect all staked ATOMs across the network.
In a recent statement, Cosmos’s co-creator Jae Kwon disclosed that an examination conducted by AiB uncovered potential issues with both the actions taken and omissions made by Manian during the creation and marketing of LSM. This review sparked significant worries about the project’s transparency and security within the Cosmos Hub.
According to Kwon, the sequence of occurrences regarding the creation and safety issues of the LSM in relation to the Cosmos Hub shows several mistakes.
As a researcher, on June 24, 2021, I was privy to an announcement made by the Interchain Foundation (ICF) regarding funding secured by Iqlusion for continued development on Gaia, network improvements, and staking derivatives. Fast forward to August of the same year, collaborative efforts between Manian and Iqlusion began in earnest, with substantial contributions from Jun Kai and Sarawut Sanit, individuals who would later be associated with North Korea, in the creation of the LSM project.
In July 2022, an in-depth review by Oak Security revealed numerous critical weaknesses, particularly in the area of slashing evasion. Surprisingly, the same North Korean coding team who originally developed the software were assigned to fix these problems. This raises concerns about the authenticity and effectiveness of the problem-solving efforts.
Although these revelations were made, Kwon asserted that Manian had been in touch with the FBI over the developers’ connections to North Korea in March 2023, but failed to share this information with the community. Subsequently, Stride Labs endeavored to strengthen security measures in April 2023; however, their efforts primarily focused on moving the existing code around with little restructuring or improvement.
19th of April, 2023 saw a Signal Proposal put forward for connecting the LSM with Cosmos Hub, despite some lingering security concerns. This proposal went through multiple phases and eventually led to the LSM’s integration on September 11, 2023 – a milestone achieved approximately 19 months following the last assessment.
In essence, on October 2, 2024, Manian admitted that he had known about links with the DPRK since March 2023, yet didn’t disclose this information to the Cosmos community before promoting LSM integration. This revelation has sparked major questions about transparency and security within the Cosmos network.
Cosmos Exec Calls for Accountability
Kwon proposed a thorough examination of the LSM, along with complete transparency about any North Korean developer connections. Furthermore, the Cosmos co-founder suggested that the Interchain Foundation should establish a list to ban individuals and organizations who propagate insecure protocols, specifically mentioning Manian and Iqlusion.
Additionally, he emphasized the importance of setting up auditing standards for code development funded by ICF and creating supervisory procedures to conduct thorough safety evaluations of the codes prior to suggesting any fresh implementations on the Cosmos Hub, to maintain stringent safety measures.
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2024-10-16 20:52