How much was lost in the DeFi Safe hack?

The DeFi Safe hack resulted in $127K in losses on November 07, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the DeFi Safe exploit?

The DeFi Safe 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.

DeFi Safe Hack

TOTAL LOST $127K

Low Nov 07, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1445 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

DeFi Safe token was rugpulled by the token owner a week after the deployment. The scammer removed 127,421 $BUSD from the liquidity pool.

Details of the Exploit

DeFi Safe token is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. The token deployer removed liquidity in the single transaction and gained 127,421 $BUSD. The $dSafe token was created on November 1 and scammed after seven days.

All the stolen funds were distributed among several EOA addresses.

Block Data Reference

Scammer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xdd20cfff…4645e1

Liquidity removal transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x7e2654c9…6db17f

Incident Report

Protocol / Project DeFi Safe

Date of Incident November 07, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type CDP Manager

Affected Token dSafe

Official Website defisaver.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @DefiSaver

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 DeFi Safe'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

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $127K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to DeFi Safe, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CertiKAlert/status/1589650367507271680

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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