Core DAO coordinates emergency hard fork after validator reward exploit

Core DAO is coordinating an emergency hard fork after validators claimed more CORE rewards than the blockchain intended to issue.

In an update, Core said the incident had been contained and that “malicious validators” could no longer draw excess rewards. It said the fork would be a forward upgrade and would not roll back the network or reverse any previously confirmed transactions.

This followed an earlier status update on Monday, in which Core said a small number of validators had accrued rewards significantly above the protocol’s intended issuance. It said the incident was limited to reward issuance and that user assets remained safe, adding that it would publish a technical postmortem.

Several exchanges restricted CORE transfers around the time of the incident. Coinbase paused sends and receives on the Core network, while Bithumb and Coinone suspended deposits and withdrawals, citing suspected or confirmed security concerns.

Bitget also suspended CORE deposits and withdrawals, citing wallet maintenance, while LBank suspended deposits because of what it described as the project’s requirements.

Core has not disclosed how much CORE was issued, how long the activity continued, or whether any of the additional tokens entered circulation. It also has not explained the vulnerability that enabled the validators to obtain the rewards. However, Core said it would publish a technical postmortem.

Cointelegraph contacted Core for further information but had not received a response by publication.