GenomesDAO Hack

TOTAL LOST $43K
Low Other

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #1750 By amount stolen
Protocol Type Exploit/Other Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

GenomesDao was attacked. Three smart contracts were attacked and the amount that was stolen by the hacker is approximately $43k.

Details of the Exploit

GenomesDAO is a DAO focused on secure, private and verifiable monetization of genomic data using DeFi.

There was a vulnerability in the contract due to which an hacker can repeatedly invoke "victim" contracts. The hacker first created fake LP tokens and using the initialization function, he was able to install a real LP contract token on a fake one.

The hacker then supplied a fake token using the shake function to get the LP tokens of the contract. Then the hacker uses the initialization function to return to the original LP-token and revokes the real LP of the contract using the output function.

Thus, the hacker was able to take a profit of about $43k.

Block Data Reference

Victim addresses:

1) https://polygonscan.com/address/0x3606cFa4…7F3c92

2) https://polygonscan.com/address/0x28fc73E9…47f714

3) https://polygonscan.com/address/0x48D1CcB0…A267b7

Attacker address: https://polygonscan.com/address/0x43ec1d16…bed7a3

Attacker smart contract addresses:

1) https://polygonscan.com/address/0x8e10c949…50c052

2) (Token) https://polygonscan.com/address/0x9aa63491…3da3c6

Transactions:

Swap $AnyMATIC to blockchain $MATIC: https://polygonscan.com/tx/0x074f3076…509311

Incident Report

Protocol / Project GenomesDAO
Date of Incident
Attack Technique Other
Classification NFT
Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Other
Affected Token GENE
Official Website genomes.io/
Protocol Twitter/X @GenomesDAO
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

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 other 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 GenomesDAO's contract logic - root cause: nft
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? Likely — with a thorough Other audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to GenomesDAO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 2022).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Other 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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