How much was lost in the CLOUD NFT hack?

The CLOUD NFT hack resulted in $519K in losses on June 27, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the CLOUD NFT exploit?

The CLOUD NFT 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.

CLOUD NFT Hack

TOTAL LOST $519K

Low Jun 27, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #990 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The CLOUD NFT project on the Binance Smart Chain was hit by a rugpull, resulting in a loss of 518,870 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

CLOUD NFT is a BEP721 token. The scammer used the token sale contract's privileged function recoverLostTokensExceptOurTokens() to withdraw funds in two transactions, totaling 518,870 $USD. The funds were then transferred to another externally owned address.

Subsequently, this EOA address swapped USDT for 1270 $BNB and transferred the funds through TornadoCash, while the remaining funds are still held at the address.

Block Data Reference

Scammer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x80593c0B…d07928

Funds Holder:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x6176D700…2fae52

Liquidity Drain Transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x9edb872e…5e7cfe

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x184c6bce…25ec95

Funds Moving Transaction Example:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x9a977c5c…c586f7

Tornado Cash Transaction Example:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x90612f91…000ae8

Incident Report

Protocol / Project CLOUD NFT

Date of Incident June 27, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification NFT

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token CLOUDNFT

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 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 CLOUD NFT's contract logic - root cause: nft

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 CLOUD NFT, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (June 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/PeckShieldAlert/status/1674001029862674436?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause NFT
Year 2023

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