LaunchZone Hack

TOTAL LOST $700K
Low Access Control Exploit / Other bsc

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ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain bsc Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #914 By amount stolen
Protocol Type Exploit/Other Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

LaunchZone platform was exploited for roughly 700,000 $USD. The platform paused operations with the $LZ token.

Details of the Exploit

LaunchZone is a decentralized platform on the Binance Smart Chain. The platform paused trading and transfer operations after an exploit. $LZ token dropped by more than 80% after an incident.

The attacker exploited other projects as well and labeled DND Exploiter. According to the official LaunchZone website, the platform lost nearly 700,000 $USD worth of assets. It's interesting that the exploiter hacked several projects at the same time and almost the same way.

The attacker was able to transfer tokens using user approvals and the malicious contract with an unverified source code. Then the contract self-destructed, transferring the tokens to the exploiter address.

Block Data Reference

Attacker address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x7d192fa3…86aa1f

Malicious contract:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x1c2b102f…ca3e92

Malicious transaction example:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xaee8ef10…8c3cae

Self-destruct transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x5e57dd9c…1939da

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project LaunchZone
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) bsc
Attack Technique Access Control Exploit / Other
Classification Protocol Logic / Exchange (DEX),Token
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Other
Affected Token LZ
Smart Contract Language Solidity
Official Website lz.finance
Protocol Twitter/X @launchzoneann
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 Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority
Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts
On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization
Target Reconnaissance Identification of LaunchZone's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them
Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets
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 Access Control Exploit / Other audit checklist and test coverage

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

  • Verify all logic paths related to Access Control Exploit / Other are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
  • 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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Post-Incident Timeline

  • 2023-03-07

    The LaunchZone Team announced their compensation program to users. The program is implemented via vesting, and affected users will be paid in $iRD tokens that have 15 month vesting period. The token can be exchanged for $RD for transactions and the $iRD itself can be staked to get rewards in $USDC, said in official Twitter

Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Proof-of-Concept Exploits

1 PoC available
poc-exploits - launchzone
$ LaunchZone Access Control

On-Chain Evidence & References

Sources & References

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