How much was lost in the MAD hack?

The MAD hack resulted in $122K in losses on June 29, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the MAD exploit?

The MAD exploit utilized Other. 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.

MAD Hack

TOTAL LOST $122K

Low Jun 29, 2022 Other

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1456 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exploit/Other Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The $MAD token was stolen by a hacker who noticed a vulnerability in the contract that held most of the assets. The hacker withdrew the profit through Tornado.cash.

Details of the Exploit

Token $MAD had been stolen from the token storage due to the lack of specific verification, as a result, anyone could pick up tokens, knowing how to interact with the function. The contract is unverified, so the function looks like "0x9763a894". The hacker stole the tokens, and called selfdestruct in this transaction: https://bscscan.com/tx/0xbaf42be5…08ab59

Then, using another contract, he took the tokens from all the addresses where the tokens from the previous transaction were sent and swapped them to $BSC-USD via PancakeSwap: https://bscscan.com/tx/0xbaf42be5…08ab59.

Which were subsequently sent to the main address from which the money was withdrawn via Tornado.cash:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x39ddbe91…114def

Block Data Reference

Token creator address: https://bscscan.com/address/0x963fc5af…34a2ec

Token contract: https://bscscan.com/address/0x525c8e9c…b02094

Vulnerable storage contract: https://bscscan.com/address/0x19b9c698…95BaD8

Attacker addresses: https://bscscan.com/address/0x957e949a…1eae93

Attacker contract addresses:

1) https://bscscan.com/address/0xe6016d18…0e6819

2) https://bscscan.com/address/0x2002c47e…0d7f28

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MAD

Date of Incident June 29, 2022

Attack Technique Other

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Other

Affected Token MAD

Official Website www.madcoin.vip/

Protocol Twitter/X @madcoinvip

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Solana Ecosystem

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 other 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 MAD'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? Likely — with a thorough Other audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to MAD, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (June 2022).

Verify all logic paths related to Other 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.

Free Trial

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://dexscreener.com/bsc/0x1515937e02c7a84b11dfdc22219c754ae415c297

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Other
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

Learn to Prevent the Next MAD

The MAD hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.

Start Free Trial Browse Attack Library