Infiltrating Cosmos

The article alleges that North Korean-linked developers wrote most of the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) for the Cosmos Hub, which it calls a potential Trojan horse. It says Jun Kai and Sarawut Sanit wrote the majority of the code, made their last merge on December 4, 2022, and left behind unresolved vulnerabilities, including slashing evasion flagged in a July 2022 Oak Security audit. It states that Zaki Manian, leader of Iqlusion, said on October 2, 2024 that he learned of the DPRK links in March 2023, and that the LSM was integrated via Proposal #790 in April 2023 without mention of these issues. Jae Kwon is cited as raising the alarm, warning that the vulnerabilities could put staked ATOM at risk.