How much was lost in the Kalax hack?

The Kalax hack resulted in $350K in losses on October 14, 2024.

What attack technique was used in the Kalax exploit?

The Kalax exploit utilized Drain Vaults. 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.

Kalax Hack

TOTAL LOST $350K

Low Oct 14, 2024 Drain Vaults blast

Affected Chain blast Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1104 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Kalax is a smart and non-custodial yield aggregator on Blast. We integrate a variety of DEXes and lending protocols with our battle-tested auto-compounding solutions, elevating assets performance to a new height

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Kalax

Date of Incident October 14, 2024

Affected Chain(s) blast

Attack Technique Drain Vaults

Classification Rugpull

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Yield Aggregator

Smart Contract Language Solidity

Official Website www.kalax.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @Kalax_io

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

VR/AR Collectibles & NFTs Gaming Avalanche Ecosystem Metaverse

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 drain vaults and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with blast smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Kalax's contract logic - root cause: rugpull

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? Likely — with a thorough Drain Vaults audit checklist and test coverage

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $350K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Kalax, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2024).

Verify all logic paths related to Drain Vaults 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

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://x.com/0x50313335/status/1845398390491726296

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Drain Vaults
Root Cause Rugpull
Year 2024

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