Yeliz Akmaca 
As you may know, attackers targeted Cetus Protocol, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider on the Sui network, last week. In this attack, they seized $223 million worth of crypto assets. The network acted swiftly to freeze $162 million. The Cetus team offered a $6 million bounty to recover the remaining $60 million.
The Cetus incident, which has made waves in the blockchain world recently, was linked by many to a security vulnerability in the Sui or Move platforms. However, according to statements by developers and security experts, these claims are inaccurate. The incident actually occurred due to an error in Cetus’s own math library. They assert that the issue was not caused by a direct vulnerability in the Sui network or the Move programming. A miscalculation in Cetus’s mathematical operations led to incorrect results and unexpected consequences. Therefore, it is considered a problem specific to the Cetus project.
According to the published report, the network was designed specifically to support the development of more secure smart contracts. The team expressed that it was deeply disappointed to witness such a major incident on a single dApp. They also emphasized that incidents like this are part of the growth process that every major blockchain faces over time. Even the best system designs or programming languages cannot fully prevent human error.
SUI $10 Million Security Investment
Sui has taken a significant step to strengthen ecosystem security. It will elaborate on its existing security measures. Additionally, it has allocated $10 million toward audits, bug bounty programs, formal verification, and other security initiatives. Sui is committed to spending an additional $10 million on security efforts. The team is working closely with the developer community to refine its security plans.
SUI Technical Details
According to security firm SlowMist’s analysis, the “checked_shlw” function in Cetus’s smart contract failed to perform overflow checks correctly. This flaw allowed attackers to over-mint liquidity with a single token. Research by Verichains indicated that similar mathematical errors might exist in other projects within the Sui ecosystem. However, those projects have started correcting the related issues.
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