How much was lost in the SnowdogDAO hack?

The SnowdogDAO hack resulted in $30.0M in losses on November 26, 2021.

What attack technique was used in the SnowdogDAO exploit?

The SnowdogDAO 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.

SnowdogDAO Hack

TOTAL LOST $30.0M

High #174 All-Time Nov 26, 2021 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2021 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #174 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Reserve Currency Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Insider trading was suspected in Snowdog's buyback event for their native token SDOG, leading to early sales before access was opened to all users.

Details of the Exploit

The project planned a buyback event for their native token SDOG. To avoid frontrunning and bots' activity and prevent token sales, the team behind Snowdog restricted early sales through direct contract interaction by using challengePassed modifier inside the contract pair. However, three addresses, suspected to be insiders, were aware of this loophole and had access to the challengeKey. They started selling tokens before the team opened access for all users.

Insider addresses:

- https://snowtrace.io/address/0xae41199b…6b1c3b

- https://snowtrace.io/address/0x83170aa4…95c37d

- https://snowtrace.io/address/0xe69575d4…2235b2

Transactions where they sold tokens for MIM can be found in the Block Data Reference section.

Block Data Reference

Transactions where insiders sold tokens:

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x9207a136…b38277

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x3d89b3ac…cd92d4

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x148406ec…ded3b7

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x302ec9b1…ef6b90

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0xbfa9df63…598fcc

- https://snowtrace.io/tx/0x3d89b3ac…cd92d4

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SnowdogDAO

Date of Incident November 26, 2021

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Other

Primary Source View Post-Mortem #1 View Post-Mortem #2

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Reserve Currency

Affected Token SDOG

Official Website www.snowdogdao.com/

Protocol Twitter/X @snowdogdao

Team Anonymous

Source Code Unverified

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 SnowdogDAO's contract logic - root cause: other

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 SnowdogDAO, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2021).

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://medium.com/@snowbankDAO/snowdog-present-and-future-1b4f3504eb6
02
Source 2 https://twitter.com/artoriamaster/status/1463997950498123780

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

HIGH

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Other
Year 2021

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