MEV-Boost Relay Hack

TOTAL LOST $20.0M
High Key Leaked via Infrastructure ethereum
Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #244 By amount stolen
Year 2023 Incident year

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MEV-Boost Relay
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) ethereum
Attack Technique Key Leaked via Infrastructure
Classification Frontend & Infrastructure

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 key leaked via infrastructure and Solidity and EVM internals
Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup
On-Chain Access Ability to interact with ethereum smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract
Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in MEV-Boost Relay's contract logic - root cause: frontend & infrastructure
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 Key Leaked via Infrastructure audit checklist and test coverage

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

  • Verify all logic paths related to Key Leaked via Infrastructure 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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