How much was lost in the ANT Token hack?

The ANT Token hack resulted in $36K in losses on April 17, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the ANT Token exploit?

The ANT Token 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.

ANT Token Hack

TOTAL LOST $36K

Low Apr 17, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1788 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Chain Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

ANT token rugpulled by a deployer-related EOA address, which drained 36,496 $USD from the pool.

Details of the Exploit

ANT is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. The project experienced significant slippage and its price plummeted over 95%. The project was rugpulled by a deployer-related EOA address who transferred all stolen funds worth 36,496 $BUSD to another EOA address.

Block Data Reference

Scammer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xb0b5ce4f…cea4ad

Malicious transaction example:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xa2fe7b49…75c372

Funds transferred to:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x2c15a4d6…d1a7b6

Incident Report

Protocol / Project ANT Token

Date of Incident April 17, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Chain

Affected Token ANT

Official Website fasttoken.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @fasttoken_com

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 ANT Token'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 ANT Token, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (April 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/CertiKAlert/status/1648064523092348931?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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