How much was lost in the MetaMask Governance hack?

The MetaMask Governance hack resulted in $1.5M in losses on December 28, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the MetaMask Governance exploit?

The MetaMask Governance exploit utilized Honeypot. 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.

MetaMask Governance Hack

TOTAL LOST $1.5M

Medium Dec 28, 2021 Honeypot

Affected Chain 2021 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #729 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Honeypot Target category

Incident Overview

The contract deployer:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x0f629914…2cb417

Created 2 fake MetaMask tokens (MASK and META) and 1 Bored Ape Yacht Club (APE) token:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x43fae6c2…476cc2

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x46194ca0…e072c3

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x9e9faba2…823674

Added initial liquidity at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x264e9142…811815

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4a1faae1…e1b6d1

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x09b14538…48c8ab

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4648a354…3fb3f3

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x6621b85c…39a19e

The liquidity was removed by the contract deployer:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb1317e04…3f51d4

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x32ba9db4…334076

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x66373054…3078f9

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x355a36ef…cb9c8f

Stolen funds were deposited into Tornado Cash mixer:

https://bloxy.info/txs/calls_from/0x0f629914…2cb417?signature_id=994162&smart_contract_address_bin=0x722122df…5b6967

The contract deployer possibly blocked token transfers:

https://honeypot.is/ethereum.html?address=0xd0898946…57B33f

https://honeypot.is/ethereum.html?address=0xbb5d5c01…8e5906

https://honeypot.is/ethereum.html?address=0xd696FB3C…ea3Df8

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MetaMask Governance

Date of Incident December 28, 2021

Attack Technique Honeypot

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Honeypot

Affected Token MASK, META, APE

Official Website www.meter.io/

Protocol Twitter/X @Meter_IO

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

DeFi Interoperability Ethereum Ecosystem BNB Chain Ecosystem Meter Ecosystem

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 honeypot 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 MetaMask Governance'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 Honeypot audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to MetaMask Governance, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (December 2021).

Verify all logic paths related to Honeypot 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/cobynft/status/1475569815821733894

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Attack Vector Honeypot
Root Cause Token
Year 2021

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