How much was lost in the DePo hack?

The DePo hack resulted in $1.7M in losses on February 04, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the DePo exploit?

The DePo exploit utilized Access Control. 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.

DePo Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.7M

Medium Feb 04, 2022 Access Control

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #682 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exploit/Access control Target category

Incident Overview

The exploiter:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x6ffe6e18…6be215

The exploiter was a public team member and the deployer of this MasterChef contract:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x1ca1a593…1c8314#code

He was able to invoke emergencyRewardWithdraw() to steal DEPO tokens, the example transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xd47dfe0b…57a6b7

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x8ac9a06a…4495a5

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x287a7c33…b4e29b

Tokens were sold on Uniswap, the example transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x05996fc3…ff6a4e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x82252439…a7940f

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x2d26cf1f…507bbf

Stolen funds were transferred to the external wallet:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe7e8cb72…ca5bde

The funds' recipient deposited them into Tornado Cash mixer:

https://bloxy.info/txs/transfers_from/0x10da7563…3307e9?currency_id=1

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project DePo

Date of Incident February 04, 2022

Attack Technique Access Control

Classification Yield Aggregator

Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Access control

Affected Token DEPO

Official Website www.depo.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @DePo_io

Team Public / Doxxed

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Mineable DeFi Privacy Smart Contracts Privacy Blockchain Privacy Coins

Protocol Links

GitHub Discord Reddit

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 Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority

Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts

On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization

Target Reconnaissance Identification of DePo's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them

Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets

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? Likely — with a thorough Access Control audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to DePo, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (February 2022).

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.

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Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/tjdunham5/status/1490414814287519749
02
Source 2 https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1489467040419258370

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Access Control
Root Cause Yield Aggregator
Year 2022

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