How much was lost in the GN hack?

The GN hack resulted in $96K in losses on May 04, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the GN exploit?

The GN 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.

GN Hack

TOTAL LOST $96K

Low May 04, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1540 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

GN token was rugpulled , 96,097 USD worth of liquidity removed from the UniSwap pool on May 4, 2023.

Details of the Exploit

GN is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. The scammer conducted an exit scam by removing 53.41 WETH, equivalent to 96,097 USD, from the UniSwap pool in a single transaction. This rugpull event led to a significant loss for the project and its investors.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xB0D56e32…7CaebE

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xa7A5f0e2…9f4B8c

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa70fe18f…fde501

Incident Report

Protocol / Project GN

Date of Incident May 04, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token GN

Official Website www.g3n.info/

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Mineable

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 GN'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 GN, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 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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Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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