How much was lost in the LINEA hack?

The LINEA hack resulted in $741K in losses on October 25, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the LINEA exploit?

The LINEA 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.

LINEA Hack

TOTAL LOST $741K

Low Oct 25, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #906 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

LINEA copycat token was rugpulled, the scammer removed liquidity worth 740,809 USD from UniSwap pool on Oct 25, 2023.

Details of the Exploit

LINEA is a copycat ERC20 token trading on UniSwap and can't be confused with the legitimate project. The deployer manipulated the token price by creating fake transactions and removed liquidity from the UniSwap LP pool, which also served as the token contract. The stolen funds, amounting to 740,809 USD worth 403.89 WETH, were transferred through the Tornado Cash mixer, making the funds difficult to trace.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x5Ac6737b…6DAC99

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4ab6ec87…6e4ced

Tornado Cash Deposit Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x7969c1a0…b8be03

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe365eb79…9b1b00

Incident Report

Protocol / Project LINEA

Date of Incident October 25, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token L

Official Website linea.build/association

Protocol Twitter/X @LineaAssoc

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Zero Knowledge Proofs Layer 2 Linea Ecosystem Binance HODLer Airdrops Binance Alpha Airdrops Binance Ecosystem Binance Listing

Protocol Links

GitHub Discord

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 LINEA'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 LINEA, 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/CertiKAlert/status/1717223534206894169?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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