How much was lost in the DUO hack?

The DUO hack resulted in $334K in losses on September 23, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the DUO exploit?

The DUO 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.

DUO Hack

TOTAL LOST $334K

Low Sep 23, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1117 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

DUO token was rugpull on Sep 23, 2023, the Deployer removing liquidity worth 334,330 USD from PancakeSwap

Details of the Exploit

DUO is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. The deployer conducted an exit scam by removing liquidity from the pool in three separate transactions over four days, causing a total loss of 1574.89 BNB. Some of the stolen funds were distributed to different wallets and withdrawn using Tornado Cash, and the rest funds lost are in the creator's wallet as of Sep 30, 2023

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x6F238E68…1D261E

Scammer Addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x5C4Eb44a…Fe113B

https://bscscan.com/address/0xaf991f71…3b4673

https://bscscan.com/address/0x79234044…A40B02

Liquidity Removal Transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x58e6d53a…92d2a4

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x932aeb6f…3dde84

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xdaffe751…bcc8a3

Incident Report

Protocol / Project DUO

Date of Incident September 23, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token DUO

Official Website dukocoin.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @dukocoin

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Solana Ecosystem Cat-Themed Animal Memes

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 DUO'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 DUO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 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/CertiKAlert/status/1705593154152386641

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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