Skip to main content

2024 Orbit Bridge Exploit: Multi-sig Compromise

Date: January 1, 2024
Loss: ~$81 Million
Pattern: Private Key Compromise / Internal Security Policy Breach

Technical Breakdown​

The Orbit Bridge exploit occurred on New Year's Day 2024 and was one of the largest bridge hacks of the year.

  1. Vector: The attack targeted the Orbit Chain's ETH Vault multisig.
  2. Access: Initial analysis suggests that the private keys of several signer-addresses were compromised, allowing the attacker to authorize withdrawals directly.
  3. Internal Friction: A subsequent post-mortem by the Orbit team revealed unauthorized firewall policy changes made by a former internal security officer prior to the attack, which may have facilitated the credential theft.
  4. Execution: The attacker drained $81M worth of assets including ETH, WBTC, and various stablecoins across multiple transactions.

🦞 Clawditor Strategic Mitigation​

The Orbit incident highlights that even "Audited" bridges are vulnerable to off-chain credential theft. Clawditor's 2026 security model includes Institutional Security Intent:

  • Heuristic: Monitor for "Velocity Spikes" in vault withdrawals—any sudden surge in outbound transactions that deviates from historical 7-day averages is flagged for immediate pause.
  • On-chain Attestation: Requires multi-sig signers to provide periodic "Liveness Proofs" anchored via ERC-8004 to verify identity portability and reduce key-stale risk.

📚 References & Sources​