Incident Overview
Rari Capital Ethereum Pool exploited through manipulation of ibETH.totalETH() value, resulting in the withdrawal of more ETH than deposited by the attacker.
The attacker initiated the exploit by flash loaning ETH from dYdX and depositing it into the Rari Capital Ethereum Pool. They then manipulated the value of ibETH.totalETH() to artificially inflate it. This allowed them to withdraw more ETH from the Rari Capital Ethereum Pool than they had initially deposited.
The value of ibETH.totalETH() returned to its true value at the end of ibETH.work, leaving the Rari Capital Ethereum Pool’s balances lower than before the attack due to the attacker's inflated withdrawal.
The attacker's address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0xcb36b1ee…512233
The transactions behind the attack:
https://bloxy.info/txs/calls_from/0xcb36b1ee…512233?signature_id=1286331&smart_contract_address_bin=0x67b66c99…0b9c7a
The transactions of stolen funds deposited into the Tornado Cash mixer:
https://bloxy.info/txs/calls_from/0xcb36b1ee…512233?signature_id=994162&smart_contract_address_bin=0x722122df…5b6967
Incident Report
Protocol Information
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.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Rari Capital, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (May 2021).
- Verify all logic paths related to Price Oracle Attack / Flash Loan Attack are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Flash Loans Attacks attack class for patterns
- Audit oracle price feeds for manipulation risks - ensure time-weighted average prices (TWAPs) or multi-source aggregators are used, not spot prices
- 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.
Free TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
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