How much was lost in the Snowdog hack?

The Snowdog hack resulted in $18.1M in losses on November 25, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the Snowdog exploit?

The Snowdog exploit utilized Drained Contracts. 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.

Snowdog Hack

TOTAL LOST $18.1M

High Nov 25, 2021 Drained Contracts avalanche

Affected Chain avalanche Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #246 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Reserve Currency Target category

Incident Overview

SDOG is a decentralized reserve currency that will last 8 days. Are you ready? Available on #Avalanche.

A SnowbankDAO company.

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Snowdog

Date of Incident November 25, 2021

Affected Chain(s) avalanche

Attack Technique Drained Contracts

Classification Rugpull

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Reserve Currency

Smart Contract Language Solidity

Official Website www.sundog.meme

Protocol Twitter/X @snowdogdao

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Memes TRON Ecosystem TRON Memes Sun Pump Ecosystem Binance Alpha Tron20 Ecosystem Binance 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 drained contracts and Solidity and EVM internals

Capital Required Seed capital to cover gas and initial position setup

On-Chain Access Ability to interact with avalanche smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Snowdog's contract logic - root cause: rugpull

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? Likely — with a thorough Drained Contracts audit checklist and test coverage

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Snowdog, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2021).

Verify all logic paths related to Drained Contracts 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://rekt.news/snowdog-rekt/

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

HIGH

Attack Vector Drained Contracts
Root Cause Rugpull
Year 2021

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