How much was lost in the AnubisDAO hack?

The AnubisDAO hack resulted in $60.0M in losses on October 29, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the AnubisDAO exploit?

The AnubisDAO exploit utilized Drained Contracts / 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.

AnubisDAO Hack

TOTAL LOST $60.0M

High #108 All-Time Oct 29, 2021 Drained Contracts / Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #108 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

AnubisDAO was hacked, and 13,597 $ETH was drained before the sale round ends

Details of the Exploit

The project was holding fundraising using the Copper fair launch auction.

AnubisDAO named itself as a fork of OlympusDAO. All deposited $ETH was withdrawn from the Balancer Vault into the EOA wallet, before a couple of hours left for the sale round finish.

Block Data Reference

Stealing transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x551890a8…79b7b0

The further funds flow:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x96756028…777fce

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x00272409…c904b4

Stolen funds are holding on this address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xb1302743…42e211

Copper auction:

https://copperlaunch.com/auctions/0x9212b088…289a34

Incident Report

Protocol / Project AnubisDAO

Date of Incident October 29, 2021

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Drained Contracts / Rugpull

Classification Rugpull / Exchange (DEX)

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token ANKH

Smart Contract Language Solidity

Protocol Twitter/X @AnubisDAO

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 drained contracts / rugpull 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 AnubisDAO's contract logic - root cause: rugpull / exchange (dex)

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 AnubisDAO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2021).

Verify all logic paths related to Drained Contracts / 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://decrypt.co/84924/anubisdao-investors-lose-60-million-in-…
02
Reference https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1454071627919106056
03
Reference https://twitter.com/Dogetoshi/status/1454059079001837578
04
Reference https://twitter.com/CopperLaunch/status/1454064572827058179

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

HIGH

Attack Vector Drained Contracts / Rugpull
Root Cause Rugpull / Exchange (DEX)
Year 2021

Learn to Prevent the Next AnubisDAO

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