How much was lost in the PEPEHUB hack?

The PEPEHUB hack resulted in $255K in losses on July 03, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the PEPEHUB exploit?

The PEPEHUB 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.

PEPEHUB Hack

TOTAL LOST $255K

Low Jul 03, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1204 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

The PEHUB token recently experienced a rug pull incident, leading to a significant loss of approximately $255,000 in WETH.

Details of the Exploit

The project team behind the PEHUB token executed a rug pull by calling backdoor functions inside a contract which allows change accounts balances. After that tokens were swapped into WETH on the Uniswap V2 DEX. As a result, they successfully withdrew and transferred a total equivalent of $255,000 USD, distributing the 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 PEHUB token.

Block Data Reference

Contract Creator:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x87f60e57…600177

Malicious txs:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x1fff577a…a99263

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc1d5cbe8…e583fc

Swap txs:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb7a54b6f…5720ba

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4f78b8cf…72a38f

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x32e481ee…9148c6

Incident Report

Protocol / Project PEPEHUB

Date of Incident July 03, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token PEPEHUB

Official Website pepetrump.sbs/

Protocol Twitter/X @xpepetrump

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes BNB Chain Ecosystem Political Memes

Protocol Links

GitHub Discord

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 PEPEHUB'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 PEPEHUB, 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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/DeDotFiSecurity/status/1676799261659348992?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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