How much was lost in the 1inch hack?

The 1inch hack resulted in $720K in losses on October 31, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the 1inch exploit?

The 1inch exploit utilized Private Key Compromised (Supply Chain Attack). Understanding this attack vector is critical for smart contract auditors and developers building secure DeFi protocols.

How can developers prevent similar smart contract attacks?

Preventing smart contract hacks requires a combination of secure coding practices, thorough security audits, and understanding common attack vectors like reentrancy, oracle manipulation, and access control flaws. Smart Contract Hacking (SCH) provides hands-on training to help developers and auditors identify and prevent vulnerabilities before deployment.

1inch Hack

TOTAL LOST $720K

Low Oct 31, 2024 Private Key Compromised (Supply Chain Attack) avalanche

Affected Chain avalanche Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #890 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

1inch is the DeFi ecosystem building financial freedom for everyone

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project 1inch

Date of Incident October 31, 2024

Affected Chain(s) avalanche

Attack Technique Private Key Compromised (Supply Chain Attack)

Classification Ecosystem

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type DEX Aggregator

Official Website 1inch.com

Protocol Twitter/X @1inch

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Token DeFi Wallet Ethereum Ecosystem AMM YZi Labs Portfolio Avalanche Ecosystem Solana Ecosystem

Protocol Links

GitHub Discord Reddit Telegram

What the Attacker Needed to Succeed

Understanding the prerequisites for this type of attack helps auditors identify protocols that are most at risk and helps developers build better defenses.

Technical Knowledge Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority

Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts

On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization

Target Reconnaissance Identification of 1inch's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them

Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets

Obfuscation Plan A strategy to launder and move stolen funds - typically through mixers, cross-chain bridges, or decentralized DEX swaps to resist tracing

What Auditors Should Check

Could this have been caught in audit? Hard to catch — private key / OpSec failures are outside smart contract audit scope

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $720K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to 1inch, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2024).

Verify all logic paths related to Private Key Compromised (Supply Chain Attack) are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
Review privileged functions (owner, admin, governance) for potential abuse vectors - centralization risks should be documented and bounded with timelocks or multi-sigs

Master these auditing techniques with hands-on labs and real exploit scenarios in the Smart Contract Hacking course.

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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://x.com/1inch/status/1851832307746742686

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Private Key Compromised (Supply Chain Attack)
Root Cause Ecosystem
Year 2024

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