New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS): Cyber-security researchers on Wednesday reported that world's largest NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace called OpenSea had compromised security which, if exploited, could have led hackers to hijack user accounts and steal entire crypto wallets of users, by sending malicious NFTs.

After seeing reports of stolen crypto wallets triggered by free airdropped NFTs, Check Point Research (CPR) investigated OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace.

The investigation led to the discovery of critical security vulnerabilities on OpenSea's platform.

The team immediately disclosed findings to OpenSea, who went onto deploy a fix in less than one hour of disclosure.

OpenSea is known as the world's largest NFT marketplace, recording $3.4 billion in transaction volume in August alone.

"These attacks would have relied on users approving malicious activity through a third-party wallet provider by connecting their wallets and providing a signature for the malicious transaction," OpenSea said in a statement.

"We have been unable to identify any instances where this vulnerability was exploited but are coordinating directly with third-party wallets that integrate with our platform on how to help users better identify malicious signature requests, as well as other initiatives to help users' thwart scams and phishing attacks with greater efficacy," the company added.

NFTs allow people to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items in cryptocurrencies, and keep track of who owns them using the Blockchain. NFTs can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, artworks, tweets, animated GIFs, songs, or even video games.

The investigation of OpenSea was prompted by reports of free airdropped NFTs allegedly gifted to users.

The security researchers recommended that users must be careful when receiving requests to sign your wallet online.

"Given the sheer pace of innovation, there is an inherent challenge in securely integrating software applications and crypto markets," said Oded Vanunu, Head of Products Vulnerabilities Research at Check Point Software.

"We sternly warn the OpenSea community to watch out for suspicious activity that may lead to theft, as we believe bad actors will continue to expand their efforts, in order to hijack crypto wallets while exploiting system vulnerabilities," Vanunu added.