How much was lost in the QuillDex hack?

The QuillDex hack resulted in $30K in losses on October 24, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the QuillDex exploit?

The QuillDex 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.

QuillDex Hack

TOTAL LOST $30K

Low Oct 24, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1827 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Quill ERC20 Layer 2 token project rugpulled, with 30,000 USD worth of 17 WETH liquidity removed from the pool on Oct 24, 2023.

Details of the Exploit

Quill, an ERC20 Layer 2 token for Ethereum, was exit scammed by its deployer. The scammer received tokens by interacting with the contract and, in the same transaction, withdrew the liquidity pool. The attacker removed 17 WETH, which is equivalent to approximately 30,000 USD, causing significant losses to the project's participants.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://blockscout.scroll.io/address/0xd217Cff3…D9E150

Scammer Address:

https://blockscout.scroll.io/address/0x8C4bC23f…f895d7

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://blockscout.scroll.io/tx/0xadaf85a1…a7266a

Interacted Contract:

https://blockscout.scroll.io/address/0x7E2F79b8…53B825

Funds Holder as of Oct 25, 2023:

https://blockscout.scroll.io/address/0x80C67432…99bCF8

Incident Report

Protocol / Project QuillDex

Date of Incident October 24, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token Quill

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

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 QuillDex'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 QuillDex, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 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/PeckShieldAlert/status/1716767148671127740

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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