How much was lost in the HeroCat hack?

The HeroCat hack resulted in $1.2M in losses on August 30, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the HeroCat exploit?

The HeroCat 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.

HeroCat Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.2M

Medium Aug 30, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #802 By amount stolen

Auditors 2 Prior security audits

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

HeroCat's project tokens $HCT and $HCK were rug pulled. Both token lost approx. >90% of their value.

Details of the Exploit

HeroCat is a NFT ecosystem that hosted both the HeroCatToken (HCT) and HeroCatKey (HCK) tokens. $HCT was dumped by the MiningPool contract, which was a team related address. Consequently, the total amount of rug pulled 1,025,532 $BUSD was transferred to an EOA address. $HCK token were dumped by an address, that received tokens from the HeroCat Deployer address, netting the attacker 151,815 $BUSD.

The ill-gotten funds resulting from the selling of both coins were transferred to the same EOA address.

Block Data Reference

Address of HeroCatKey token:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x032a4e59…1cefa1

Address of HeroCat MiningPool:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x1CAdDd4c…54b110

Address of HeroCat Deployer:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x73112dcd…606f84

Address of HCK dumper:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x6E49ae03…D6A441

Address currently holding rug pulled funds:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x74A12a28…23CF4C

Transaction between deployer and dumper:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x4159880b…766d50

Transactions transferred drained funds:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xcd5be406…e4367d

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xe2c952dc…eac429

0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b

Incident Report

Protocol / Project HeroCat

Date of Incident August 30, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification NFT,Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token HCT

Official Website www.hypercat.exchange/

Protocol Twitter/X @hypercatex

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Solana Ecosystem Cat-Themed Animal Memes

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 HeroCat's contract logic - root cause: nft,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

Audited by Audit Report 1, Audit Report 2 — still lost $1.2M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to HeroCat, 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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report
Audit Report 2 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://archive.is/gcnB0

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause NFT,Token
Year 2022

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