How much was lost in the GMETA hack?

The GMETA hack resulted in $3.7M in losses on July 18, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the GMETA exploit?

The GMETA 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.

GMETA Hack

TOTAL LOST $3.7M

Medium Jul 18, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #505 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

GMETA token was rugpulled by the deployer and linked addresses, resulting in a loss of 3,675,612 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

GMETA, a BEP20 token, fell victim to a rugpull. The token deployer transferred a significant amount of $GMETA tokens to an EOA address on February 4, 2023. A portion of these tokens was moved to another EOA which sold the tokens and drained over 2.3 million $USDT from the PancakePool.

The remaining tokens were transferred between multiple EOA addresses, and one of them drained the pool for an additional 1.3 million $USDT, of which 1 million $USDT was transferred to an unverified contract.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x9f02c29a…eb8ed1

Scammer Addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xd33D347d…50D695

https://bscscan.com/address/0x97Ed15d9…9bd7DE

Funds Holder Contract:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xc95615e6…2bec20

Liquidity Removal Transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xb8c4220d…fbf62f

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x444d119a…8af4dc

Tokens Transfer Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xded53af2…51314c

Deployer Relation Proof:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x93023f1d…9bf302?a=0x42787259…51a8e5

Incident Report

Protocol / Project GMETA

Date of Incident July 18, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token GMETA

Official Website www.metaplanet-nft.com/

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Collectibles & NFTs BNB Chain Ecosystem

Protocol Links

Discord

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 GMETA'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 GMETA, 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/1681292342102458368

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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