How much was lost in the DubaiCEO hack?

The DubaiCEO hack resulted in $237K in losses on July 02, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the DubaiCEO exploit?

The DubaiCEO 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.

DubaiCEO Hack

TOTAL LOST $237K

Low Jul 02, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1236 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

DubaiCEO project was rugpulled by the deployer with a total loss of 237,272 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

DubaiCEO, an ERC20 token, fell victim to a rugpull. The deployer sold tokens in four transactions for approximately 124 $ETH and then transferred the funds to two EOA addresses as 70 and 54 $ETH. The total loss due to this scam reached 237,272 $USD.

Block Data Reference

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xEE8f6c22…a4Ac48

Liquidity Drain Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x66873bf7…b77877

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x05a0e88c…366c0e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xfc989ff4…732948

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x04ba9ffc…9ed559

Funds Transfer Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xce061f62…60ed5d

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x82f38ce2…a39a02

Incident Report

Protocol / Project DubaiCEO

Date of Incident July 02, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token DubaiCEO

Official Website dubaicoin.org/

Protocol Twitter/X @DubaiCoin_org

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Mineable

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 DubaiCEO'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 DubaiCEO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 2023).

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/DeDotFiSecurity/status/1676094746475864065

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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