Millions Stolen in zkSNARK ‘Copycat’ Chaos

Key Highlights

• FOOMCASH bled ~$2.26M after hackers cloned a zkSNARK exploit, proving even privacy tech can’t hide poor math.
• Attackers abused a Groth16 glitch, while whitehats salvaged Ethereum funds-partly, like picking pockets in a fire sale.
• Cryptography’s delicate dance: one misstep in setup equals millions lost. A lesson in humility for smart contracts.

FOOMCASH, a project promising privacy for digital gamblers, found itself the star of a very public disaster on Ethereum and Base. A $2.26 million hemorrhage followed, all because someone forgot that zkSNARKs are less “magic” and more “very specific algebra.” BlockSec, the firm tasked with guarding against such calamities, confirmed the exploit was a copycat act-imitating Veil Cash’s earlier misadventure with a flair for repetition.

In an X post, BlockSec’s Phalcon noted the exploit hinged on a “misconfigured” zkSNARK verifier, a phrase that might as well be the blockchain equivalent of a “closed door” sign in a room full of fireworks. The attacker, with the precision of a Russian nesting doll, reused forged proofs to siphon funds. Ethereum, however, offered a faint silver lining: whitehats swooped in to recover a fraction of the losses, proving that even chaos has its part-time janitors.

Beyond the money, this fiasco underscores a deeper truth: privacy-focused contracts are only as secure as the humans who configure them. A single miscalculation, buried in lines of code, can become a vault’s skeleton key.

How the attack worked

The Veil Cash exploit, now a tragicomic template for FOOMCASH, relied on a Groth16 verifier error. Two cryptographic keys-gamma and delta-were set equal, a mistake akin to locking your front door with a key you’ve already handed to every passerby. Normally, zkSNARKs tie proofs to specific inputs, but with gamma = delta, attackers could morph proofs like chameleons, draining ZOOM tokens with the same original proof. It was a masterclass in “Why yes, I can withdraw your life savings.”

CertiK, ever the exasperated parent of blockchain security, confirmed the glitch: “The root cause may be the delta2gamma2 setting of the Groth16 verifier at 0xc0..71A6. This enables the exploiter to compute ‘pC’ needed for different ‘nullifierHash’ while all other inputs are the same.” In simpler terms, the attacker cheated at algebra and won. On-chain evidence revealed they adjusted C via elliptic curve computations, as if the zkSNARK constraints were merely suggestions.

Whitehat recovery efforts

Whitehats, the blockchain’s reluctant heroes, managed to claw back 2 ETH from the Ethereum carnage. Apex777.eth reported, “A whitehat (@DefimonAlerts) has recovered about 2 ETH. The current pools have not been affected by this.” One might call this a “partial victory,” though “partial” seems generous when millions still vanish into the void. Still, it’s a reminder that in DeFi’s wild west, even the good guys sometimes ride in on horses made of code.

While Base network losses remain staggering, the incident reveals a growing ecosystem of ethical hackers-part vigilantes, part opportunists-who treat DeFi like a treasure map. And yet, for all their heroics, the message is clear: cryptography is a delicate art. A single misplaced decimal point, a forgotten variable, and millions evaporate. FOOMCASH, and others like it, would do well to remember that in the blockchain theater, even the smallest prop can become a plot twist.

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2026-02-26 13:41