How much was lost in the Kannagi hack?

The Kannagi hack resulted in $1.1M in losses on July 30, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Kannagi exploit?

The Kannagi exploit utilized Drained Contracts. 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.

Kannagi Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.1M

Medium Jul 30, 2023 Drained Contracts ethereum zksync era

Affected Chain ethereum 2 chains affected

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #815 By amount stolen

Year 2023 Incident year

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Kannagi

Date of Incident July 30, 2023

Affected Chain(s) ethereum zksync era

Attack Technique Drained Contracts

Classification Rugpull

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

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 drained contracts and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with ethereum, zksync era smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Kannagi'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 Drained Contracts audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Kannagi, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 2023).

Verify all logic paths related to Drained Contracts 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://x.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1685162644653973510

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Drained Contracts
Root Cause Rugpull
Year 2023

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Incident Report

What the Attacker Needed to Succeed

What Auditors Should Check

Sources & References

Related Hacks - Drained Contracts

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