How much was lost in the 2049 hack?

The 2049 hack resulted in $82K in losses on October 12, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the 2049 exploit?

The 2049 exploit utilized Rugpull. 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.

2049 Hack

TOTAL LOST $82K

Low Oct 12, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1591 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

2049 token project experienced a rugpull exit scam on Oct 12, 2023, with 82,471 USD worth of 399.84 WBNB stolen from PancakeSwap liquidity pool.

Details of the Exploit

2049 is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. The scammer, who is not directly related to the deployer, exploited a backdoor function in the token contract to increase their balance by sending tokens to themselves. Before the incident, the scammer received 0.05 BNB from Binance.

The stolen funds, amounting to 82,471 USD worth of 399.84 WBNB, were transferred to another EOA and then distributed among multiple addresses.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xa6ABbBBa…D6fceB

Scammer Addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xfCE24b0d…6a911e

https://bscscan.com/address/0xFcCe0c3B…8FD2d4

Token Swap Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xa6f7c4b8…5625b6

Transaction Receiving Funds from Binance:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x2457182f…2d6f23

Incident Report

Protocol / Project 2049

Date of Incident October 12, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token 2049

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 Deep understanding of rugpull and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in 2049's contract logic - root cause: token

Execution Speed Precise transaction ordering and timing to exploit the vulnerability within a single atomic block

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

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to 2049, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2023).

Verify all logic paths related to Rugpull are guarded by proper access controls and input validation
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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1712341428582633878

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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