How much was lost in the Dividend Token hack?

The Dividend Token hack resulted in $92K in losses on November 24, 2020.

What attack technique was used in the Dividend Token exploit?

The Dividend Token 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.

Dividend Token Hack

TOTAL LOST $92K

Low Nov 24, 2020 Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1554 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

The token contract owner was setted to 0x38f614dd…88459e address, according to the contract overview:

https://etherscan.io/token/0xc84ed036…7a1e94#readContract

The transaction below shows that he was able to generate 1.8 trillion DIV tokens onto his wallet:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5776d1e8…c67c82

Subsequently, these tokens were sold, of which he received ~137.2 ETH. Transaction list:

https://bloxy.info/txs/calls_from/0x38f614dd…88459e?signature_id=1102188&smart_contract_address_bin=0x7a250d56…f2488d

Another wallet, which participated in this event, used a smart contract backdoor and was able to execute mint and sell tokens in the same transaction, additionally gaining 17.6 ETH:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x619ecf49…ea1b9a

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Dividend Token

Date of Incident November 24, 2020

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token DIV

Protocol Twitter/X @UXINVITE

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Communications & Social Media Social Token Toncoin 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 ethereum smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Dividend Token'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 Dividend Token, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2020).

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/CaptainJackAPE/status/1331473858847600642

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2020

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