How much was lost in the Cryptos Tribe hack?

The Cryptos Tribe hack resulted in $91K in losses on July 27, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the Cryptos Tribe exploit?

The Cryptos Tribe 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.

Cryptos Tribe Hack

TOTAL LOST $91K

Low Jul 27, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1557 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The $CSTC token has been rugpulled by it's team. Scammers took a profit of $91k.

Details of the Exploit

The creator of the token deployed the contract to the BSC network, where 1B tokens were minted to him:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xec710cbf…eb3ba0

After that, the token creator started sending tokens to other addresses:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x78f1a611…29e8bc?a=0xce213442…d6c105

Scammer address (C) interacted with the finalize function, which created a pool of liquidity between the CSTC/BNB pair: https://bscscan.com/tx/0x85065f9b…4ca479

After a while, when investors invested in the token, scammer address (B) started dumping the price of the token in this transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xe439ffd5…a9511c

$CSTC tokens were received by scammer address (B) in this transaction: https://bscscan.com/tx/0x6c8cdeaf…01bce7

Funds were laundered via Tornado.cash.

As the time of this writing information on this case is scarce. More sources will be added if the case should develop.

Block Data Reference

Involved addresses:

Token creator, scammer address (A): https://bscscan.com/address/0xce213442…d6c105

Scammer address (B): https://bscscan.com/address/0x17fb844d…132898

Scammer address (C) - LP creator: https://bscscan.com/address/0x664b67af…831bba

Liquidity pool creation transaction: https://bscscan.com/tx/0x85065f9b…4ca479

Contracts interacted with:

Bonus Pools:

1) https://bscscan.com/address/0xa49e4193…73db37

2) https://bscscan.com/address/0x82e9be2e…ad3df3

3) https://bscscan.com/address/0x4459a559…f13327

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Cryptos Tribe

Date of Incident July 27, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token CSTC

Official Website cryptostribe.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @CryptosTribe

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

BNB Chain Ecosystem

Protocol Links

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 Cryptos Tribe'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 Cryptos Tribe, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 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://cryptostribe.io/
02
Web Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20220728134152/https://cryptostribe.io/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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