Hackers Have Hit Arcange Hard
I guess everyone was wondering what happened with HiveSQL and all of arcange's services and websites (except his Hive witness nodes). I am not in the hivesql discord server (wasn't aware there was one), but Rishi was kind enough to share on the Holozing discord what Arcange added there and I'll share the screenshot here for anyone who didn't have the chance to read:
As a side note, the missed delegation rewards on Holozing due to the hivesql issues are coming, they will be dropped all at once soon.
But let's return to hivesql and the other services and websites arcange provided. From his presentations on various occasions, we know he is quite security-focused. He wonders too in the message above how were the attackers able to access and encrypt his backup devices as well. Now that we've come to this point, I remember a recent post of @themarkymark exactly on this topic.
What I'd be curious further is what was the purpose of the attackers. Is this a classic ransomware attack that seems to spread like wildfire the more "money" and sensitive information we control from our devices, or is it a test for Hive, to see how dependent it is on one man's infrastructure? If it's the latter, we survived, with a few glitches here and there.
Either way, I don't want to be in Arcange's shoes right now. Stay strong!
Short Term Solutions
There are short-term solutions to replace a light dependency on hivesql. I wouldn't dare to give advice here, but Rishi found a way (I don't know the numbers after @ rishi in his username, but you can find him in the Holozing discord, for example, and I am sure in the HiveDevs discord as well).
Or you can ask in the HiveDevs discord directly, I suppose.
Long Term Solutions
Here, I would focus on solutions that are more... decentralized. Can someone do with HAF all that was possible with HiveSQL? HAF is obviously much more than HiveSQL, but not sure if it can do all that was possible via HiveSQL. Perhaps it depends on customization.
HiveSQL is a service (free while supported by the DAO), HAF is not. Someone would have to set up a HAF database and allow public access to make it a service. @mahdiyari does that, but with limitations that make it unusable in production. That means someone who wants to use HAF in production needs to set up a HAF database of their own. If there are multiple such HAF databases throughout the ecosystem that are not highly customized, at need, one can temporarily be allowed access to the database set up for a different purpose/dapp. At least, that's how I see things. I'm sure there will be some public HAF databases (or APIs for them), the Blocktrades team has worked tirelessly to create some HAF-based tools that will be launched soon.
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The timing is uncanny. I wrote the post as a few users lost their account to ransomware and I was talking with a few other witnesses. I think it is a big attack vector most people completely ignore.
Fortunately for @arcange, all the data can be replayed, but it is a very time consuming process if he has to start again at block 0 so it is just a huge hassle. I am curious how they got elevated permissions though, HiveSQL is read only for users.
If it's only the database he lost, then yes, it's only time and hassle to get it back to date. He mentions another backup off site, so maybe he doesn't have to start from block 0.
Yeah, that's something he (or the investigators) needs to figure out, or this can happen again.
Instead of focusing on the short term solution, I strongly believe focusing on the long term goal is really important
Sometimes short-term solutions are needed to fix/patch things and make them work again. Then, when the pressure goes down, you can think about long-term solutions.
Crazy the amount of hacking going on everywhere. I have a feeling, security is going to be a big topic going forward, especially with the emergence of AI and more tools to help them.
I wonder if security (or lack of it) will be used as a pretext for more control.
yes, i guess if you think about the farce of taking our shoes off and not taking water on planes, i do wonder whats next.
I was lucky not to be asked to take my shoes off even once at security check. But was prepared for the possibility. It's not like you can say no, unless you want to turn around.
That's lucky. I prefer driving than using airports.
So do I. Haven't flown with an airplane for something like 5 years.
DHF should be able to fund multiple operations such as HiveSQL and it should have done it. Else we are going to have very fragile infrastructure for HIVE. Nodes being decentralized is not going to be enough. Building antifragile infrastructure benefits everyone on HIVE.
It's my impression it is expected HAF will be used more throughout the ecosystem. And dApp devs are waiting for Blocktrades to come out with its first tools to have more working examples of how to use HAF.
I am not familiar with the backend of HAF. If it leads to multiple parties creating their own SQL databases, it could be great! If we are simply replacing one centralized service with another, it may not be sufficient. Either way this is progress. HIVE will grow even stronger after this.
From my understanding of it, it will lead to multiple HAF databases. Probably there will be some public services, but with a low limit that would exclude their usage by big dApps.
This is very good. I think it could lead to DAPPs creating their own HAF databases that could be made available to others in an emergency situation. Thank you very much for the details.
That's my thinking, but we will see if that's the way we are heading or not.
Privacy security matters surprising things are happening
Thanks for the update. I guess we just got to be patient and wait for things to return to normal.
Yeah, I hope he didn't lose anything else critical because the database can be recreated from scratch, if needed.
Wow, that is crazy to hear what happened to arcange. I wonder what exactly happened to cause it and I think it's better to be safe. Security is very important and I guess you can never be too safe.
What happened to arcange is proof of that. I can imagine he had a bunch of protections and backups, and yet, this happened...
I really just hope it didn't affect the arcange service that much
Thanks for the update. I saw that it was hacked, but I didn't know the details. I wonder if it was an inside job, or a lapse in prevention where they downloaded something. It would be scary if it was done by someone outside the group, and were able to go through all the securities.
I don't know more details, but I suppose at some point arcange will tell us what they discover happened.
Does this influence other than the Holozing? I would imagine quite a few drip/pay-services would be dependant on this system somehow.
Yes, it affects quite a few smaller projects that used hivesql primarily for their scripts.