Aerodrome V1 Hack

TOTAL LOST $700K
Low DNS Hijack ethereum optimism
Affected Chain ethereum 2 chains affected
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #1102 By amount stolen
Year 2025 Incident year

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Aerodrome V1
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) ethereum optimism
Attack Technique DNS Hijack
Classification Frontend & Infrastructure

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 dns hijack and Solidity and EVM internals
Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup
On-Chain Access Ability to interact with ethereum, optimism smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract
Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Aerodrome V1's contract logic - root cause: frontend & infrastructure
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 DNS Hijack audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Aerodrome V1, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2025).

  • Verify all logic paths related to DNS Hijack 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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