402bridge Hack

REPORTED LOSS $18K
Low Privileged key compromise base

What happened

On October 27, 2025, 402bridge’s Base contract was taken over after its ownership was transferred to 0x2b8F…361F. The new owner used the contract’s privileged transferUserToken function to pull USDC from wallets that had previously approved the contract, affecting more than 200 users. Security reports placed the total at 17,693 USDC.

The project said a private-key leak had compromised team wallets and was investigating the precise cause.

Technical Root Cause

The incident combined a compromised privileged key with an owner-controlled function that could transfer tokens from any wallet that had granted approval. The team’s stated server-side key handling created a critical custody risk, and broad user approvals magnified the blast radius once ownership changed.

Case & protocol details

Classification Bridge / Access Control
Protocol Type Exploit/Access control
Implementation language Solidity
Protocol Twitter/X @402bridge

How it happened

Users had granted the 402bridge contract USDC approval for minting-related operations. Contract ownership was then transferred to 0x2b8F…361F. The new owner called transferUserToken, using the contract’s existing allowance to transfer remaining USDC from approved wallets.

Security reporting tracked the address consolidating and swapping proceeds; public evidence does not resolve whether the original key compromise was external or internal.

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