How much was lost in the Gandalf The Grey hack?

The Gandalf The Grey hack resulted in $266K in losses on July 22, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Gandalf The Grey exploit?

The Gandalf The Grey 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.

Gandalf The Grey Hack

TOTAL LOST $266K

Low Jul 22, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1187 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Gandalf the Grey project was rugpulled, with a loss of 141 $ETH, equating to 266,238 $USD, through liquidity removal.

Details of the Exploit

GAN is an ERC20 token, trading on UniSwap. The project fell victim to an exit scam as the token deployer removed liquidity from the pool. This action resulted in a loss of 141 $ETH, which was worth around 266,238 $USD at the time of the incident.

The stolen funds were transferred through a couple of EOA addresses. In addition, part of the stolen funds was distributed via CoinTool, adding another layer of complexity to the scam.

Block Data Reference

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xb221582a…fc7de8

Funds Holder Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x9c5f9de4…96cbeb

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x19e96c9c…9aac0b

Funds Transfer Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4d5ea3ed…c94671

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc2f7beb7…b6656d

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Gandalf The Grey

Date of Incident July 22, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token GAN

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 Gandalf The Grey'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 Gandalf The Grey, 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/1682618951988137984?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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