The Solana Foundation removed a group of validator operators from its authorization program after they were involved in malicious sandwich attacks against Solana users.
Solana Foundation Removes Validators from Authentication Program Due to Malicious Attacks
Solana Validator Relations Lead Tim Garcia announced the decision on the Solana Foundation's Discord server and said, “Decisions on this matter are final. Enforcement actions will continue as we identify operators participating in Mempools that allow sandwich attacks.”
The removal is intended to ensure that the foundation does not authorize validators who engage in harmful activities.
Mert Mümtaz, co-founder of Solana RPC provider Helius, explained that this move is crucial to protect retail users from such malicious applications.
A type of front-running exploit, sandwich attacks involve an attacker placing two transactions around a victim's transaction to manipulate prices and profit from the difference.
As noted in Garcia's May 7 Discord post, these attacks are clearly against the rules set by the Solana Foundation.
“Operators who engage in malicious activity, such as participating in a private Mempool for sandwich attack operations or otherwise harming Solana users, will not be tolerated by the delegation program.
Anyone found to be engaging in such activities will be rejected from the program and any shares from the Foundation will be immediately and permanently removed,” Garcia emphasized during the announcement.
The Solana Foundation Delegation Program supports validators by delegating SOL tokens to them, reducing the need for validators to hold significant amounts of tokens. Validators are selected based on performance and are expected to adhere to good practices.
*This is not investment advice.