How much was lost in the HashFree hack?

The HashFree hack resulted in $46K in losses on August 13, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the HashFree exploit?

The HashFree 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.

HashFree Hack

TOTAL LOST $46K

Low Aug 13, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1736 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The HashFree project has been rug pulled by its project deployer. The team made away with $BNB 140.5 in profits.

Details of the Exploit

The project deployer created contract minting to himself 10B $HashFree tokens:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x0134e513…9f573a

After the project deployer deployed the contract to the BSC, a few hours later scammer created a pair between HashFree/BNB:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x557d1a1c…b4857f

Since the community invested in this project quite quickly, in just 3 hours the scammer made a swap taking a profit of 140.5 $BNB:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x96af45e7…11a8d2

Block Data Reference

Project Deployer

https://bscscan.com/address/0xb4e31c77…89be05

Incident Report

Protocol / Project HashFree

Date of Incident August 13, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token $HashFree

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 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 HashFree'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 HashFree, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 2022).

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://dexscreener.com/bsc/0x6084d1efe68c5ecf12a4b38fb8ae122acd0b329a

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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