How much was lost in the PIPI hack?

The PIPI hack resulted in $121K in losses on November 15, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the PIPI exploit?

The PIPI 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.

PIPI Hack

TOTAL LOST $121K

Low Nov 15, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1461 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

PIPI token was rugpulled by deployer, removing liquidity worth 121,373 USD from PancakeSwap.

Details of the Exploit

PIPI is a BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap. On Nov 15, 2023, the deployer manipulated the token's price and then swapped a significantly larger number of tokens, completely depleting the liquidity pool through the scammer's address. The stolen funds, amounting to 121,373 USD, are still in the deployer's address.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xCC78A249…C2f66C

Scammer Address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x6896bd31…4447f9

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x2e8d0600…f38fad

Incident Report

Protocol / Project PIPI

Date of Incident November 15, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token PIPI

Official Website www.getpip.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @pippishrimpswap

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Payments Ethereum Ecosystem Solana Ecosystem

Protocol Links

Discord Reddit

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 PIPI'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 $121K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to PIPI, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 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/PeckShieldAlert/status/1724624190224126287?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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