How much was lost in the AIRWA hack?

The AIRWA hack resulted in $34K in losses on April 04, 2025.

What attack technique was used in the AIRWA exploit?

The AIRWA exploit utilized Other. 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.

AIRWA Hack

TOTAL LOST $34K

Low Apr 04, 2025 Other

Affected Chain 2025 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1802 By amount stolen

Protocol Type DEX Aggregator Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

On April 4, 2025, AIRWA token on BNB Smart Chain (BSC) was exploited for approximately $34,000 due to a misconfigured public setBurnRate() function.

Details of the Exploit

The vulnerability stemmed from the setBurnRate() function in the AIRWA token contract being publicly accessible. The attacker called setBurnRate(980)—an extremely high burn percentage—and then executed a transfer(pair, 0). This combination caused the pair’s tokens to be burned, manipulating the liquidity pool and allowing the attacker to extract value.

Incident Report

Protocol / Project AIRWA

Date of Incident April 04, 2025

Attack Technique Other

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2

Protocol Information

Protocol Type DEX Aggregator

Official Website www.airswap.xyz/

Protocol Twitter/X @airswap

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

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 other 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 AIRWA'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? Likely — with a thorough Other audit checklist and test coverage

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

Verify all logic paths related to Other 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://x.com/CertiKAlert/status/1908070571985830307
02
Source 2 https://x.com/jamesjhon9403/status/1908124419836227860

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Other
Root Cause Token
Year 2025

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