Incident Overview
A flashloan attack was carried out on the Nova project during which the attacker managed to withdraw 278 $BNB from the protocol.
Novo is decentralized and deflationary volume-based cryptocurrency protocol available on the Binance Smart Chain based on the $NOVO token.
The attacker created a one-time wallet (attacker address (A)) that was used to attack $NOVO. Using this wallet, attacker created a smart contract, which was not verified, in order to make an attack on the token:
1) https://bscscan.com/tx/0xc346adf1…cdc57f
2) https://bscscan.com/tx/0x23fd14a4…6cec35
In the same transactions, the profit received was sent to the scammer address (B). Then all the remaining profits were sent directly to the scammer address (B):
https://bscscan.com/tx/0x21bbfa5c…a0867d
All the profit was laundered via Tornado.Cash.
Involved addresses:
0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b0x81d3ec77438b4e99aa99ba25b1dbc3fea317fe3b
- Attacker address (A): https://bscscan.com/address/0x31A7CC04…29186E
- Attacker address (B): https://bscscan.com/address/0x03765646…7b524b
Smart contracts:
Attacker contract: https://bscscan.com/address/0x3463A663…18cf2a
Victim contract (NOVO token): https://bscscan.com/address/0x6fb2020c…253333
Incident Report
Protocol Information
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Novo, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 2022).
- Verify all logic paths related to Oracle Issue are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Oracle Manipulation & Price Manipulation attack class for patterns
- Audit oracle price feeds for manipulation risks - ensure time-weighted average prices (TWAPs) or multi-source aggregators are used, not spot prices
- 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 TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
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01
Source 1 https://www.novodefi.xyz/
- 02
Learn to Prevent the Next Novo
The Novo 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.