Leading Cryptocurrency ATM Manufacturer General Bytes Loses $1.5M in Bitcoin in Hacking Attack

General Bytes reportedly experienced a security breach enabling an attacker to remotely access the master service interface and transfer funds from hot wallets. As a result, the majority of cryptocurrency ATM operators in the US had to temporarily suspend operations. The attacker successfully liquidated 56.28 bitcoins worth approximately $1.5 million from about 15 to 20 crypto ATM operators nationwide.

During the weekend, the company revealed that cybercriminals took advantage of a zero-day vulnerability, known as BATM-4780, to upload a Java application remotely via the ATM’s master service interface and execute it with ‘batm’ user privileges.

General Bytes clarified in their security incident disclosure that the perpetrator scanned the Digital Ocean cloud hosting IP address range and found running CAS services on ports 7741, which included the General Bytes Cloud service and other GB ATM operators running their servers on Digital Ocean (which is their recommended cloud hosting provider).

Upon uploading the Java application, the attackers were able to execute the actions, General Bytes cautioned that both their customers and their own cloud service were compromised during the attacks.

While the company revealed the amount of money stolen by the attacker, they also shared a list of cryptocurrency addresses used by the hacker during the attack.

As of the latest update, the stolen cryptocurrency remains in the Bitcoin wallet. However, it seems that the attackers have converted the stolen Ethereum to USDT using Uniswap.

Even if there are no signs of a security breach, General Bytes advises all users to assume that their CAS passwords and API keys have been compromised and to immediately invalidate and generate new ones. Additionally, all user passwords should be reset as a precautionary measure.

The company has announced plans to conduct multiple security audits of its products by several firms within a short timeframe, in an effort to identify and resolve any other potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors.