How much was lost in the Abracadabra Spell hack?

The Abracadabra Spell hack resulted in $6.5M in losses on January 30, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the Abracadabra Spell exploit?

The Abracadabra Spell exploit utilized Borrow Logic Exploit. 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.

Abracadabra Spell Hack

TOTAL LOST $6.5M

Medium Jan 30, 2024 Borrow Logic Exploit ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #383 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Abracadabra.money is a spell book that allows users to produce magic internet money ($MIM) which is a stable coin that you can swap for any other traditional stable coin.

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Abracadabra Spell

Date of Incident January 30, 2024

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Borrow Logic Exploit

Classification Protocol Logic

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type CDP

Smart Contract Language Solidity

Official Website abracadabra.money/

Protocol Twitter/X @MIM_Spell

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 borrow logic exploit and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

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

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Abracadabra Spell's contract logic - root cause: protocol logic

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? Likely — with a thorough Borrow Logic Exploit audit checklist and test coverage

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $6.5M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

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

Verify all logic paths related to Borrow Logic Exploit 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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/peckshield/status/1752279373779194011

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Borrow Logic Exploit
Root Cause Protocol Logic
Year 2024

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