How much was lost in the SHOK hack?

The SHOK hack resulted in $71K in losses on October 16, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the SHOK exploit?

The SHOK 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.

SHOK Hack

TOTAL LOST $71K

Low Oct 16, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1629 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

SHOK token was rugpulled for 71,488 $USD. The token price dropped by more than 83%.

Details of the Exploit

SHOK is BEP20 token trading on PancakeSwap and can't be confused with tokens with the same symbol. $SHOK tokens were withdrawn from the contract with an unverified source code to the EOA address. Consequently, the scammer drained the liquidity from the pool which caused to the token price to drop by more than 83%.

Block Data Reference

Scammer address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xf42c8f11…b0e3cd

Tokens move transaction:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x80f9cba3…c5c2b2

Liquidity draining transactions:

https://bscscan.com/token/0x55d39832…197955?a=0xf42c8f11…b0e3cd

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SHOK

Date of Incident October 16, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token SHOK

Official Website www.shorkcoin.xyz/

Protocol Twitter/X @shork_coin

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes Solana 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 SHOK'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 SHOK, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2022).

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/CertiKAlert/status/1581696148196073472

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

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