Incident Overview
The DNS server of decentralized cryptocurrency exchange EtherDelta was successfully breached by an attacker, enabling the hacker to redirect users to a malicious website.
Consequently, the hacker was able to steal funds from users who unknowingly imported their private keys into the impostor's website.
According to data obtained from the Ethereum blockchain, it appears that the hacker stole approximately 308 ether β worth approximately $250,000.
The hacker's address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x3f8a37bdβ¦6cc5fc
Incident Report
Protocol Information
Market Context at Time of Hack
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to EtherDelta, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (December 2017).
- 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.
Free TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
Learn to Prevent the Next EtherDelta
The EtherDelta hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.