---
type: source
title: "Drift Protocol $285M exploit via Solana durable nonce abuse and device compromise"
author: "CoinDesk, The Hacker News, BlockSec (multiple reporters)"
url: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/04/02/how-a-solana-feature-designed-for-convenience-let-an-attacker-drain-usd270-million-from-drift
date: 2026-04-02
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-04-07
priority: high
tags: [drift, solana, security, social-engineering, durable-nonce, multisig, north-korea]
flagged_for_theseus: ["AI coordination layer security — autonomous systems need governance mechanisms that don't rely on human coordinators who can be socially engineered"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Drift Protocol lost $285M on April 1, 2026 in the largest DeFi exploit of 2026. The attack was NOT a smart contract vulnerability. The mechanism:

1. **Six-month social engineering campaign**: North Korean UNC4736 (Citrine Sleet/Gleaming Pisces) posed as a quantitative trading firm starting fall 2025. In-person meetings at crypto conferences across multiple countries. Deposited $1M+ into Drift to build credibility. Integrated an Ecosystem Vault to gain privileged access.

2. **Device compromise**: Malicious TestFlight app and VSCode/Cursor IDE vulnerability compromised Security Council members' devices, obtaining multisig private keys without members' awareness.

3. **Durable nonce abuse**: Solana's durable nonce feature replaces expiring blockhashes with fixed on-chain nonces, keeping pre-signed transactions valid indefinitely. Attackers obtained two pre-signed approvals from Drift's 5-member Security Council multisig that remained valid for 8+ days.

4. **Zero-timelock exploitation**: Drift had recently migrated its Security Council to 2-of-5 threshold with zero timelock. No detection window before execution.

5. **Execution**: On April 1, pre-signed transactions used to seize protocol-level control in minutes.

Attribution: UNC4736 / AppleJeus / Golden Chollima — North Korean state-sponsored. Fund flows trace back to Radiant Capital attackers.

Solana Foundation launched Stride and SIRN (Solana Incident Response Network) on April 7 in direct response.

Sources:
- CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/04/02/how-a-solana-feature-designed-for-convenience-let-an-attacker-drain-usd270-million-from-drift
- CoinDesk narrative: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/04/05/drift-says-usd270-million-exploit-was-a-six-month-north-korean-intelligence-operation
- The Hacker News: https://thehackernews.com/2026/04/drift-loses-285-million-in-durable.html
- BlockSec analysis: https://blocksec.com/blog/drift-protocol-incident-multisig-governance-compromise-via-durable-nonce-exploitation
- TRM Labs attribution: https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/north-korean-hackers-attack-drift-protocol-in-285-million-heist

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The exploit mechanism — durable nonce feature creating indefinitely valid pre-signed transactions — is Solana-specific and wasn't accounted for in the protocol's security architecture. This is a more precise update to the "trust-shifted not trustless" finding from Session 14. The attack surface isn't generic "human coordination" but a specific mismatch between Solana's durable nonce design and multisig security assumptions.

**What surprised me:** The Solana durable nonce feature was the key enabler — a convenience feature designed for offline transaction signing became the primary exploit mechanism. This is precisely the kind of emergent vulnerability where a useful primitive creates a new attack surface when combined with certain governance configurations.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Evidence that the attack was stopped or detected partway through. It appears the zero-timelock was the decisive failure — without that window, the durable nonce pre-signatures were sufficient to execute the drain completely.

**KB connections:**
- "futarchy solves trustless joint ownership" — the Drift case doesn't involve futarchy governance, but it demonstrates that human coordinator attack surfaces are real and exploitable even in highly technical crypto-native teams
- "Ooki DAO proved that DAOs without legal wrappers face general partnership liability" — Drift had a legal entity, which is relevant for post-exploit recovery and insurance claims

**Extraction hints:** Could generate a claim about Solana durable nonce as a security architecture risk for protocol governance. Could also generate a claim about zero-timelock governance migrations as a vulnerability pattern. Most important claim: DeFi security architecture must account for protocol-specific features (durable nonces, admin upgrade paths) that create new attack surfaces beyond standard multisig threat models.

**Context:** Largest DeFi exploit of 2026. Attribution to North Korean state actors is the second such case (after Radiant Capital). The pattern of months-long social engineering campaigns targeting multisig signers is becoming the dominant attack vector in DeFi, surpassing smart contract exploits.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: futarchy solves trustless joint ownership not just better decision-making (the Drift case is evidence that "trustless" must be qualified by protocol-specific attack surfaces)
WHY ARCHIVED: Drift is the highest-profile 2026 DeFi exploit; its mechanism (durable nonce + device compromise) is a specific security architecture finding, not generic social engineering
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the durable nonce mechanism specifically — this is a Solana primitive that creates indefinite transaction validity and wasn't accounted for in Drift's security model. Separate from the general "trust-shifted" claim in KB; this is a more precise technical finding.
