How much was lost in the Patex hack?

The Patex hack resulted in $122K in losses on July 18, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Patex exploit?

The Patex 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.

Patex Hack

TOTAL LOST $122K

Low Jul 18, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1459 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The PATEX token recently experienced a rug pull incident, leading to a significant loss of approximately $121,664.74 USD in 499 BNB (WBNB) tokens.

Details of the Exploit

The project team behind the PATEX token executed a rug pull by performing liquidity removal from the Pancake V2 pool. As a result, they successfully withdrew and transferred a total of 499 BNB (WBNB), equivalent to $121,664.74 USD, distributing the ill-gotten funds across four different wallets.

This sudden liquidity removal and token transfer event caught the community off guard, causing substantial financial losses to investors and holders of PATEX token.

Block Data Reference

Contract Creator:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x2c6275ae…d5852f

Liquidity Removal tx:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x42a22f6b…14bfb2

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Patex

Date of Incident July 18, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token PATEX

Official Website app.catex.fi/

Protocol Twitter/X @Catex_Fi

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Ethereum Ecosystem BNB Chain Ecosystem

Protocol Links

GitHub

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 Patex'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

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $122K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Patex, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (July 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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CertiKAlert/status/1681333692919083012?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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