How much was lost in the MOON Token hack?

The MOON Token hack resulted in $42K in losses on February 10, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the MOON Token exploit?

The MOON Token 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.

MOON Token Hack

TOTAL LOST $42K

Low Feb 10, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1754 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Moon Token project rugpulled by the deployer for 42,117 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

MOON is a copycat BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap, and can't be confused with other project's with the same token name and symbol. The token experienced a significant slippage and its price to plummet by over 99%. The token was rugpulled by its deployer, who removed liquidity worth 42,117 $USD in three transactions.

The funds were transferred to multiple EOA addresses.

Block Data Reference

Scammer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x40997449…806f12

Malicious transactions:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x22eb5d71…792b87

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xdb36ea76…a212da

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x4eb0e908…99da5d

Incident Report

Protocol / Project MOON Token

Date of Incident February 10, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token MOON

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 MOON Token'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 MOON Token, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (February 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/1624067943985254403

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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