Aztec suffers second $2.1M exploit in a week

Aztec, a privacy-focused Ethereum Layer 2 protocol, lost about $2.1 million in a second exploit within seven days, SlowMist reported. The security firm traced on-chain transfers that moved roughly $2.1 million from addresses linked to Aztec to accounts believed to be controlled by the attacker. Combined with an earlier incident in the same seven-day span, total losses on Aztec in that period reach about $4.2 million.

The firm identified the activity by following transaction flows and flagging the receiving addresses. SlowMist did not publish a full technical breakdown of the vulnerability and provided limited detail on how the exploit was executed.

The transfers targeted contracts associated with Aztec. SlowMist’s alert focused on the movement and pattern of funds rather than statements from Aztec’s development team. At the time of the report, Aztec had not published a detailed postmortem.

SlowMist released the timing of the transfers and the recipient addresses and advised custodians and exchanges to monitor those addresses for incoming funds. The security firm described the incident as active while tracing and recovery efforts continue and said it was coordinating with other on-chain security services to follow fund flows and identify potential cash-out routes.

Aztec uses zero-knowledge technology to provide private transactions and operates as a Layer 2 rollup on Ethereum. The protocol has undergone audits and external security reviews in the past year. No vulnerability disclosure or further technical details have been published alongside SlowMist’s initial alert.