Active scam drainer targeting victims of 'ETH-BASE' fake liquidity-mining scheme; holders with unlimited USDT approvals to a known malicious address advised to revoke immediately.
Security & Exploits ·
Holders of tokens from an "ETH-BASE" scheme are being warned of an active drainer targeting their wallets through unlimited USDT approvals granted to a malicious address. Security researchers identified that victims granted approval to 0x60CE723c20b6b7fa17F3C71D01ae8bD11D9aB8f4, which can extract their USDT at any time without further authorization. A full investigation report documents the scheme, and the case has been reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Token approvals create persistent vulnerability even after a victim leaves a malicious platform. Rather than requiring direct access to private keys, approval-based exploits allow approved addresses to transfer funds indefinitely once granted permission. This mechanism bypasses typical wallet security measures including hardware wallet protections, which provide no defense against approval-based drains.
Affected users are instructed to immediately revoke these approvals through standard tools. However, a critical gap remains: users whose wallets contain compromised seed phrases face a sweeper bot threat, where any gas funds deposited for revocation transactions are themselves stolen instantly. In such cases, revocation becomes impossible, and affected wallets cannot be recovered or secured within their current state.