Saga (SagaEVM / Saga Dollar): IBC Precompile Input Validation Bypass → Infinite Mint

An attacker taught Saga's IBC bridge a new language — fiction — forging cross-chain collateral deposits to mint $7M in Saga Dollar from thin air before the chain could hit the brakes.

Occurred 2026-01-21 Loss $7M Status closed

Summary #

Saga (SagaEVM / Saga Dollar) suffered a Cross-Chain Bridge / Stablecoin on 2026-01-21, resulting in a loss of approximately $7M.

What happened #

An attacker taught Saga's IBC bridge a new language — fiction — forging cross-chain collateral deposits to mint $7M in Saga Dollar from thin air before the chain could hit the brakes.

Linked factors #

RD-F-007 — related : Bug bounty absent — baseline integrity gap [via dashboard_risk_factors/Bug bounty: Unknown]
RD-F-098 — illustrative : TVL anomaly — % drop in <1h vs 30d baseline [via realtime_signals/TVL exit early: Y — $37M → $13.6M TVL drop; $D depeg to $0.73 during/after exploit]
RD-F-126 — causal : Is-a-fork-of (Cat 8 anchor) [via dashboard_risk_factors/Forked?: Y — built on Ethermint (Cosmos EVM layer); vulnerability confirmed to originate there]