How much was lost in the MarbleX hack?

The MarbleX hack resulted in $162K in losses on October 11, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the MarbleX exploit?

The MarbleX 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.

MarbleX Hack

TOTAL LOST $162K

Low Oct 11, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1371 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

MBX token project was rugpulled on PancakeSwap, with scammers stealing 161,784 USD worth of 787.65 WBNB after exploiting a backdoor function.

Details of the Exploit

MBX is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. On October 11, 2023, the project experienced an exit scam through a rugpull. The scammer exploited a backdoor function in the contract, allowing them to increase their balance by sending tokens to themselves.

They then swapped the MBX tokens to 787.65 WBNB, worth approximately 161,784 USD. The stolen funds were transferred to another EOA and subsequently distributed among multiple addresses. Interestingly, the scammer received 0.055 BNB from Binance before the incident.

Although not directly related to the deployer, the contract was likely intentionally written with the exploitable backdoor function.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x66C506cC…3cf491

Scammer Addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xd93769ac…F0e80A

https://bscscan.com/address/0x3f04768E…c704ED

Token Swap Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x5cb066ac…f84d4c

Transaction Receiving Funds from Binance:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xeb0b552a…f460db

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MarbleX

Date of Incident October 11, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token MBX

Official Website www.marblex.io/en

Protocol Twitter/X @MARBLEXofficial

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Gaming BNB Chain Ecosystem Aptos Ecosystem DWF Labs Portfolio MoveVM (MVM) Klaytn Ecosystem

Protocol Links

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 MarbleX'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 MarbleX, 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/PeckShieldAlert/status/1712021573505618239

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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