Only a few hours into the hack, the malicious actor changed their minds and decided to allegedly abandon the exploit.
In a surprising turn of events, an individual who recently seized control of Tornado Cash's governance indicated a willingness to reverse their actions.
On May 21st, a malicious proposal allowed the attacker to gain control over Tornado Cash's governance.
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The move threatened the decentralized cryptocurrency mixer’s ecosystem, as the attacker could potentially withdraw all locked votes, drain all tokens from the governance contract, and disable the router.
In response to this unfolding crisis, Tornado Cash community member Tornadosaurus-Hex, also known as Mr. Hex, promptly created a new proposal urging all members to withdraw any funds locked in governance to mitigate potential damages.
In an unexpected development, the attacker reached out to the Tornado Cash community with a proposal, suggesting abandoning the control over governance.
Mr. Hex shared the attacker's new intentions with the community, which read:
The attacker posted a new proposal to restore the state of Governance. I think that there is a good chance he’s going to execute it.
Even though the community had no alternative but to trust the attacker's plan, Mr. Hex assured them that his assessment of the attacker’s proposal for restoring the storage layouts appeared legitimate.
When it came to the proposal, the community members were divided. Some were excited and believed that the hacker changed their minds. Others speculated that this could be a tactic to inflate the TORN token's price.
Interestingly, the incident came as hacks in the cryptocurrency ecosystem started declining.
The Tornado Cash governance hack underscores the importance of robust security measures and quick community response in mitigating potential damage during such incidents.