Bisq v1 has experienced an exploit in its trade protocol that allowed an attacker to drain a portion of available offers.
The impact was limited to open offers that were actively taken by the attacker over the last 12 hours. Funds held in usersβ Bisq Bitcoin wallets were not affected.
As an immediate mitigation, an emergency mechanism was activated to disable trading by setting the required trading version to 2.0.0 β a version that does not exist. This effectively prevents the attacker from continuing the exploit.
The attack appears to have started on May 1 in the early morning hours. The development team is continuing to investigate the full extent of the damage. Users with trades initiated on or after this time are advised to open mediation by selecting the trade and pressing Ctrl + O. A mediator will assess whether their trade was affected.
Preliminary investigation indicates that the attacker exploited a missing validation check using a modified client. The team is working to reliably reproduce the issue and verify a fix. Once confirmed, a hotfix will be released based on the latest stable version. In parallel, a comprehensive security review is being conducted to identify any related or additional vulnerabilities.
For affected users, reimbursement options are being evaluated. Bisq recognizes that both the exploit and a consequent response are critical to its integrity, and is dedicating all available resources to finding a solution that helps restore confidence.
Bisq 2, with the Bisq Easy trade protocol, is not affected. It is a separate codebase with a fundamentally different protocol design.
Bisq will continue to provide updates through its official communication channels, including Matrix, the Bisq Forum, Telegram, Reddit, X, and Nostr.
Bisq sincerely apologizes for the impact this incident has had on its users, and is fully committed to addressing both the root cause and its consequences.
Login to reply
Replies (15)
Wild but not unexpected in the days of AI. Pretty crazy the attacker just made their own client without the validation step. Thanks for the notification! π«‘ thatβs a good response to a breach in my opinion. π
Kudos for the transparency.
Good response from Bisq team.
Exploits and attacks are unavoidable, but FOSS allows quick detect, patch & fix.
Impressed with the response and taking responsibility.
it was not me...
Would be curious to get some details once this is resolved.
Confused about what the attacker was able to get if this is a multisig-contract.
Just the security-deposit? The entire trade-amount?
Shit happensβ¦ but itβs how you respond when it does that shows people who you really areβ¦
Solid and rapid response by @Bisq
View quoted note β
Not good
Good work. Does this have effects on Haveno networks or is this part of the 2-of-2 scheme Bisq uses vs the 2-of-3 scheme in Haveno?
u guys r awesome. if they didn't get bitcoin in wallets what did they get?
Good to see transparency but who tf still uses V1 ?
I take full responsibility lol
Oof!
View quoted note β
U ask why people still use Bisq v1? Because it is by far the best place to trade btc P2P.
Yea my bad for some reason I thought Bisq2 had become the most used version now. Its been while since I regularly used Bisq, I usually go with hodl hodl for their larger volumea