How much was lost in the SHIA hack?

The SHIA hack resulted in $116K in losses on August 24, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the SHIA exploit?

The SHIA 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.

SHIA Hack

TOTAL LOST $116K

Low Aug 24, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1477 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

SHIA token project was rugpulled by the deployer, removing liquidity worth 116,094 $USD, profiting 69.81 $ETH.

Details of the Exploit

SHIA is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On Aug 24, 2023, the deployer executed an exit scam by first adding 10 $ETH as liquidity and then removing it in two transactions. The total profit of the scammer reached 69.81 $ETH, equivalent to roughly 116,094 $USD at current market rates.

Additionally, a wash trading technique was used to artificially inflate the trading volume. As of now, the stolen funds remain at the scammer's initial address.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xc765faEC…3A45B0

Liquidity Adding Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x3582fcee…fe85aa

Liquidity Removal Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x57b9ca78…9c049a

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xcbc27dee…67e20f

Wash Trading Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x96c68509…d01ce3

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SHIA

Date of Incident August 24, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token SHIA

Official Website www.shibacoin.tech/

Protocol Twitter/X @ShibaRebirth

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Ethereum 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 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 SHIA'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 SHIA, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 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/1694381224553246770?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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