How much was lost in the HPD hack?

The HPD hack resulted in $143K in losses on September 19, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the HPD exploit?

The HPD 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.

HPD Hack

TOTAL LOST $143K

Low Sep 19, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1411 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

HPD token project has been rugpulled by its team. The team made a profit of ~$143k.

Details of the Exploit

The creator of the token deployed the $HPD contract, minting 1 million tokens to the BSC network, and in the same transaction, an HPD/BNB pair was created on PancakeSwap:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xab103825…bebd29

Then the scammer transferred tokens to scammer address (B):

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x1a6323a5…ef9eb1

Scammer address (B) added liquidity in pair investing 32 $BNB:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xeec02cfb…4048ed

When community investment became acceptable for scammers, they started to remove liquidity:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x53104409…9efc8c

All the profit was transferred to scammer address (C):

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x652c5ff2…5e433e

Block Data Reference

Involved address:

- Scammer address (A), token creator: https://bscscan.com/address/0x69b359e0…97e32a

- Scammer address (B): https://bscscan.com/address/0xedcc2f37…222cf8

- Scammer address (C): https://bscscan.com/address/0xfb696e27…1c7f54

0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b

Incident Report

Protocol / Project HPD

Date of Incident September 19, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token HPD

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 HPD'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 HPD, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 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/0x531044096a77bfbb9f45ee7613e3f90bf19efc8c

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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