RocketSwap Base Hack

TOTAL LOST $869K
Low Private Key Compromised (Brute Force) / Access Control base

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain base Incident surface
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #843 By amount stolen
Protocol Type Dexs Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

RocketSwap, a DEX on Base chain, suffered an access control exploit on Aug 14, 2023, leading to a loss of 472 ETH, equivalent to 869,000 $USD.

Details of the Exploit

On Aug 14, 2023, RocketSwap, a decentralized exchange operating on the Base chain, fell victim to an access control exploit. The attacker managed to compromise the RocketSwap: Deployer EOA address, allowing them to seize LP tokens. After acquiring these tokens, the attacker removed liquidity and converted RCKT, WETH, and axlUSDC tokens to ETH, which were then bridged to the Ethereum Mainnet via Stargate Bridge.

Once on the Ethereum chain, the attacker used the funds to add liquidity along with a newly created fake token, LoveRCKT. Half of the liquidity with the fake token was already withdrawn as of August 15, 2023. The attack resulted in a total loss of approximately 472 ETH, worth around 869,000 $USD. RocketSwap's team confirmed that there was a brute force attack on their server where the private keys were stored, and subsequently shut down their Telegram and disabled comments.

Block Data Reference

Attacker Address:

https://basescan.org/address/0x96c0876F…B13DE8

Malicious Transaction:

https://basescan.org/tx/0x25c11d66…f9bfba

Liquidity Removal Transactions:

https://basescan.org/tx/0x5dce5276…50c5b5

https://basescan.org/tx/0x1a1d567e…179ada

Bridging Transaction:

https://basescan.org/tx/0x9b384f72…8de026

Funds Holder as of Aug 15, 2023:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x96c0876F…B13DE8

Fake Token Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xbdacbd34…841a39

Liquidity Adding Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xbe0b8918…4f3dba

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xf1a95e4d…432220

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project RocketSwap Base
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) base
Attack Technique Private Key Compromised (Brute Force) / Access Control
Classification Infrastructure / Exchange (DEX)
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs
Affected Token RCKT
Smart Contract Language Solidity
Official Website app.rocketswap.cc/en/exchange/swap
Protocol Twitter/X @RocketSwap_Labs
Team Anonymous
Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories
Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Token DeFi Base Ecosystem
Protocol Links

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 Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority
Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts
On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization
Target Reconnaissance Identification of RocketSwap Base's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them
Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets
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 RocketSwap Base, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 2023).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Private Key Compromised (Brute Force) / Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
  • 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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Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

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These hacks used the same attack technique. Understanding the pattern helps prevent future exploits.

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