How much was lost in the iSharesBitcoin hack?

The iSharesBitcoin hack resulted in $88K in losses on October 26, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the iSharesBitcoin exploit?

The iSharesBitcoin 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.

iSharesBitcoin Hack

TOTAL LOST $88K

Low Oct 26, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1576 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

IBTC token project was rugpulled by the deployer after removing liquidity worth 87,947 USD from PancakeSwap pool.

Details of the Exploit

IBTC is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. On Oct 26, 2023, the deployer and scammer sent funds from Binance to their addresses. It is assumed that the deployer created the contract in a way that allowed it to be hacked later.

The scammer (0xf4956850…9c5B37) minted a significantly larger number of tokens and then rug pulled by selling 1,000,000,000,000,000 IBTC, completely depleting the liquidity pool. The stolen funds were transferred to another EOA and then distributed between multiple addresses, resulting in a total loss of 87,947 USD worth 394.76 WBNB.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xc3295049…918Ed9

Scammers Addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xf4956850…9c5B37

https://bscscan.com/address/0x3f04768E…c704ED

https://bscscan.com/address/0x336dd91C…9ABb11

Token Swap Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x8a92789d…da0341

Funds sending from the Binance exchange Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xd70007a6…195e94

Incident Report

Protocol / Project iSharesBitcoin

Date of Incident October 26, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token IBTC

Official Website sharecoin.info/

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

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 iSharesBitcoin'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 iSharesBitcoin, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 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/PeckShieldAlert/status/1717451477092905449

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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