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Qubic Wallet-Seed Exploit Drains 1,404 Wallets as Network Halts
Weak Seed Generation Exposed Apple-Linked Wallets While Most Stolen Funds Were Immobilized
TL;DR
- Qubic said an attacker exploited weak wallet seeds and drained 1,404 wallets without compromising the Qubic protocol itself.
- The attacker took about 2.94 trillion QU, worth roughly $1.29 million, during a drain lasting less than two hours.
- Qubic’s Computors halted the network, while 87.1% of drained funds remained on-network and MEXC froze the other 12.9%.
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Qubic said an attacker drained 1,404 wallets after exploiting wallet seeds generated with insufficient randomness, prompting the network’s Computors to halt transactions. The weakness affected wallet creation rather than the Qubic protocol itself. Qubic’s Core team is mapping affected identities and preparing proposals for the Computor quorum.
The QUBIC price fell 5.2% over the previous 24 hours to $0.0000004394. The broader crypto market declined 2.8% over the same period, with the security incident disclosed on October 18 accompanying the sharper move in QUBIC.
Weak Wallet Seeds Allowed the Attack
Qubic said the drain lasted less than two hours, beginning at 23:42 UTC on October 17 and ending at 01:26 UTC on October 18. The attacker took about 2.94 trillion QU, worth roughly $1.29 million at the reported price.
Qubic traced the theft to insufficient randomness when affected wallet seeds were generated. Seeds created through any browser on an iPhone or iPad before October 18, 2026, were affected, as were seeds generated through Safari on a Mac before that date.
Seeds created through the Qubic iOS app before July 2025 were also affected. Qubic released wallet version 4.26.4 to prevent new weak seeds from being generated. “The issue was in seed generation, not in the Qubic protocol itself,” the team said.
Network Halt Keeps Drained Funds Locked
Qubic’s Computors coordinated a halt at tick 85,371,949 after the drain. The pause stopped transactions, keeping stolen funds that remained on the network locked in place.
Qubic said 87.1% of the drained funds stayed on its network. MEXC received the other 12.9% and froze the receiving account within roughly an hour. Exchanges also suspended QUBIC deposits and withdrawals.
“Any resolution is a decision for the Computor quorum, under the rules of the network,” Qubic said. The Core team is mapping affected identities and drafting proposals for the quorum.
Cysic Bridge Exploit Adds to October Security Incidents
A separate exploit hit Cysic’s cross-chain bridge on October 17, the same day the Qubic drain began. The Cysic Foundation said an attacker minted 10 million unauthorized Cysic tokens on BNB Smart Chain.
Early findings showed that the attacker breached a database behind the bridge’s services and then exploited flawed processing logic to forge a mint message. Cysic blacklisted the recipient address within about 76 minutes, restricting roughly 2.8 million CYS still held there.
The bridge remained closed, while Cysic said no existing user assets were stolen. The team had not quantified the final damage because the amount of tokens minted did not equal the final dollar loss.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
