How much was lost in the Genswap hack?

The Genswap hack resulted in $62K in losses on August 30, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Genswap exploit?

The Genswap 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.

Genswap Hack

TOTAL LOST $62K

Low Aug 30, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1665 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Dexs Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Genswap token has experienced an exit scam leading to the loss of around 38 $ETH (~$62,000).

Details of the Exploit

Genswap has experienced an exit scam leading to the loss of around 38 $ETH (~$62,000). The backdoor inside the contract allows the scammer to abuse an underflow vulnerability to inflate his balance and then subsequently dump the token. After that Ether balance was bridged to the Arbitrum network.

Block Data Reference

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xeb4bfb8e…85d144

Bridge deposits:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xfc3ddc44…6427be

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x223e0e6a…d27a85

Exploit Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x61750911…9567c7

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Genswap

Date of Incident August 30, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token GEN

Official Website dex.swapdegen.tips

Protocol Twitter/X @genswap_dex

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Binance Chain BNB Chain Ecosystem

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 Genswap'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 Genswap, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 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/1696984725359898920?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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