Incident Overview
A Coinbase client lost all funds from their account through a SIM port hack.
The attacker ported the victim's SIM card to a phone that they control. The attacker then initiated the password reset flow on the victim's email account. A verification code was sent from the email provider to the victim's phone number — which was intercepted by the attacker. The attacker received all access and drained the Coinbase wallet.
Incident Report
Protocol Information
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Coinbase, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 2019).
- Verify all logic paths related to Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
- 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.
Free TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
Learn to Prevent the Next Coinbase
The Coinbase hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.