Magic Eden legacy approvals exposed $5.7M in NFTs before whitehat rescue
Whitehats secured 23,155 NFTs after legacy approvals on Magic Eden left roughly $5.7 million in tokens open to an exploit, The Block reported.
Legacy approvals on the NFT marketplace Magic Eden left approximately $5.7 million worth of NFTs exposed to an exploit, according to a report from The Block. The exposure involved permissions that had been granted previously and remained active on the platform.
Before the exposure could be taken advantage of, whitehats stepped in and secured 23,155 of the affected tokens, the report said. The rescue figure covers the NFTs recovered from the vulnerable pool.
Why stale approvals carry risk
Token approvals let a marketplace or contract move assets on a user's behalf, and they typically stay in force until the holder revokes them. When those permissions outlive their original purpose, they can become a target if a related contract or key is compromised.
The incident adds to a recurring category of NFT and DeFi losses tied to approval settings rather than flaws introduced in new code. Security researchers routinely suggest that holders review and revoke approvals they no longer use, a process offered by several wallet and block explorer tools.
Details on how the exposure arose, and whether any tokens remained at risk after the rescue, were not fully outlined in the initial report.