Ledger CEO says attack was an ‘unfortunate isolated incident’

Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier addressed the “supply chain attack” on its Ledger ConnectKit in a post on Thursday.

“The standard practice at Ledger is that no single person can deploy code without review by multiple parties. We have strong access controls, internal reviews and multi-signature code when it comes to most parts of our development. This is the case in 99% of our internal systems. Any employee who leaves the company has their access revoked from every Ledger system,” Gauthier said.

However, that was not the case on Thursday morning when a former employee was the subject of a phishing attack, giving the hacker an open door to Ledger’s package manager. It’s still unclear how the employee had maintained access to the system. Ledger did not immediately return a request for comment asking for clarification.

Read more: Ledger says attacker conducted phishing attack on former employee

“This was an unfortunate isolated incident,” Gauthier continued. “It is a reminder that security is not static, and Ledger must continuously improve our security systems and processes. In this area, Ledger will implement stronger security controls, connecting our build pipeline that implements strict software supply chain security to the NPM distribution channel.”

Gauthier also said that Ledger would increase security around dapps that enable browser-based signing. Throughout communications on its X account on Thursday, Ledger’s official account promoted clear-signing transactions.

According to Ledger’s site, “with Transparent and Clear-signing, you are given a transformed version of the original data,” making it easier for the user to understand what they’re signing.

The incident was first reported Thursday morning, with decentralized exchange SushiSwap raising a red flag. The exchange took its front-end web app offline after the warnings, and told users to refrain from engaging with unexpected “Connect Wallet” pop-ups.

Revoke.cash, which also took its front-end offline, was also impacted according to cybersecurity firm BlockAid.

Soon after, Ledger said that it had deployed the genuine ConnectKit and worked with WalletConnect to take down the malicious code “within 40 minutes of discovery.” According to a timeline from the firm earlier Thursday, the exploit was active for roughly 5 hours.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also posted on X that the attacker’s address was frozen.

“Ledger has engaged with authorities and is doing all we can to help as this investigation unfolds. Ledger will support affected users in helping to find this bad actor, bring them to justice, track the funds and work with law enforcement to help recover stolen assets from the hacker,” Gauthier said.

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