ParaSpace Hack

TOTAL LOST $173K
Low Other

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #1348 By amount stolen
Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

ParaSpace was attacked, which might cause a loss of 5,058,751 $USD. The funds were rescued after the protocol halted transactions.

Details of the Exploit

ParaSpace is a Lending and Borrowing protocol that offers to borrow NFT assets as well as ERC20 tokens. The protocol was attacked, but malicious transactions were reverted. After several crypto security firms detected suspicious transactions, the protocol was informed and halted the service after a brief period of time.

The potential loss might reach 2,909 $ETH which is worth 5,058,751 $USD at the moment. ParaSpace announced on Twitter, the funds were rescued and none of the NFT assets were affected. The protocol suffered nearly 100 $ETH due to slippage on the attacker's malicious actions.

Block Data Reference

Attacker address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x21B7A2c0…9c46B3

Malicious transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe92b91f4…186e18

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc7c8bf8e…1c1f62

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x161427ac…70e3d9

Malicious contract:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xc1810fb1…b19233

Incident Report

Protocol / Project ParaSpace
Date of Incident
Attack Technique Other
Classification Borrowing and Lending
Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2 View Post-Mortem #3

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exploit/Other
Affected Token pcApe
Official Website app.para.space/
Protocol Twitter/X @ParaSpace_NFT
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 other 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 ParaSpace's contract logic - root cause: borrowing and lending
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 Other audit checklist and test coverage
Audited by Certik — still lost $173K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

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

  • Verify all logic paths related to Other 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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Security Audit History

Bug Bounty Immunefi Details

Sources & References

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