How much was lost in the BGE hack?

The BGE hack resulted in $427K in losses on December 01, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the BGE exploit?

The BGE 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.

BGE Hack

TOTAL LOST $427K

Low Dec 01, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1059 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The token deployer sold off BGE that had been preminted to their address on PancakeSwap.

Details of the Exit scam

13M of the BGE were preminted to the token’s deployer address in the contract’s creation transaction.

The deployer dumped 705,000 BGE on PancakeSwap in 23 transactions having gained $426,892.

Block Data Reference

The deployer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xcdf77769…e1c2d8

Example sell transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xb54485b0…8b82d7

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x3ac49ba7…d42a9f

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xabcd55d3…c15d3b

Incident Report

Protocol / Project BGE

Date of Incident December 01, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token BGE

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 BGE'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 BGE, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (December 2022).

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/1598488030070902784
02
Web Archive https://archive.ph/wUGdh

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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