Solana Bot Scam Unmasks Critical Crypto Supply Chain Flaw—Is Your Portfolio Next?
Another day, another crypto exploit—except this one’s got teeth. A Solana-based bot scam just ripped open a fresh vulnerability in the blockchain supply chain, leaving devs scrambling and traders sweating. Here’s the breakdown.
### The Attack Vector: Bots Gone Rogue
Malicious actors hijacked Solana’s transaction flow using custom bots, bypassing standard security checks like they were weekend KYC forms. The result? A slick, automated drain on unsuspecting wallets.
### Why This Hurts More
Supply chain attacks aren’t new, but hitting Solana’s high-speed ecosystem? That’s like poisoning the espresso machine at a Wall Street hedge fund—chaos spreads faster.
### The Silver Lining (Sort Of)
White hats are already dissecting the exploit. Meanwhile, crypto VCs are probably drafting ‘supply chain security’ pitch decks as we speak—nothing sells like fear.
### The Bottom Line
If you’re still treating crypto like a 24/7 casino, maybe rethink that strategy. Or don’t—your losses keep the rest of the market liquid.
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A crypto supply chain attack is unfolding on GitHub, where a widely used solana bot is quietly draining users’ wallets.
The popular Solana bot, “solana-pumpfun-bot,” disguised itself as a legitimate open-source trading tool but instead carried hidden malware that drained users’ wallets. Blockchain security firm SlowMist flagged the issue on Wednesday, spotlighting how trust can be turned into a weapon in decentralized systems.
Solana Bot Malware: A Popular GitHub Tool Turns Rogue
The bot gained popularity among meme coin traders, collecting GitHub stars and forks that made it seem credible. But users who ran the software reported their wallets were emptied, with funds rerouted to FixedFloat—a service frequently used in suspicious transfers.
Investigators from SlowMist found signs of foul play in the project’s package-lock.json file. A malicious NPM package called crypto-layout-utils was pulled not from the official registry, but from a disguised GitHub release.
Once downloaded, the malware scanned local systems for wallet data and sent it to an external server, githubshadow.xyz. Similar clones of the bot were also found using the same tactic.
“We confirmed that this was a malicious NPM packet,” SlowMist stated in its official disclosure. “The attacker implemented the logic of scanning the files on the victim’s computer and uploaded wallet-related files to a server they controlled.”
Trust Misused and Risks Amplified
The problem wasn’t just with the code—it was how it looked. The project was propped up by a network of GitHub accounts that forked and starred the repository, making it appear trustworthy.
For institutional players watching the crypto space, this type of attack reinforces the need for deeper vetting. Indicators like GitHub stars or forks can be manipulated, and reliance on them alone leaves blind spots in risk assessments.
“The attacker tricked users into downloading and running malicious code by pretending to be a legitimate open-source project,” the SlowMist team explained. “The entire attack chain involved multiple GitHub accounts working together, which expanded the spread and increased credibility.”
As of now, SlowMist hasn’t confirmed how much was stolen. The full financial impact remains unknown, but the nature of the scam suggests multiple victims and possibly a wide reach. The scam succeeded because it mirrored legitimate projects in FORM and presentation. Familiar signals—like structure and popularity metrics—lulled users into a false sense of security.
On July 2, a victim reached out to the SlowMist team after losing crypto assets. The cause? Running a seemingly legitimate GitHub project — zldp2002/solana-pumpfun-bot.
What looked SAFE turned out to be a cleverly disguised trap.
Our analysis revealed:
1⃣The perpetrator… pic.twitter.com/UkbVLf7owk
2025 Crypto Security Stats
Recent figures help put this attack into perspective:
“This type of attack is a combination of social engineering and technology,” SlowMist noted, “and it is difficult to fully defend against it within the organization.”
While the solana-pumpfun-bot scam hasn’t yet been included in official stats, it aligns with a growing trend: attackers targeting people and tools outside the blockchain itself.
From ‘Code Is Law’ to ‘Verify Everything’
This incident goes beyond bugs—it marks a shift in approach. The old MANTRA of trusting open-source projects is being replaced with something stricter: inspect everything. Every dependency. Every update.
“We recommend that developers and users be highly vigilant about GitHub projects from unknown sources, especially when it comes to wallet or private key operations. If you do need to run debugging, it is recommended to run and debug in a separate machine environment with no sensitive data,” SlowMist said.
GitHub stars used to suggest reliability. Today, they’re just one more thing that can be faked.
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Yona has no crypto positions and does not hold any crypto assets. This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The Shib Daily is an official media and publication of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency project. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
