Aztec Lost $4.3M to Exploits on Abandoned Code It Couldn't Patch — Ethereum

Aztec Lost $4.3M to Exploits on Abandoned Code It Couldn’t Patch

Two exploits drained $4.3 million from Aztec’s abandoned smart contracts in four days—not through zero-days or insider access, but by exploiting disagreements between old proof verification and settlement code that the team could no longer patch. The attacks highlight a critical tradeoff: renouncing admin keys for decentralization means permanently losing the ability to respond to discovered vulnerabilities.