How much was lost in the SpaceX Copycat hack?

The SpaceX Copycat hack resulted in $22K in losses on June 13, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the SpaceX Copycat exploit?

The SpaceX Copycat 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.

SpaceX Copycat Hack

TOTAL LOST $22K

Low Jun 13, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1879 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

SpaceX token's deployer rugpulled the project, draining the liquidity pool worth 21,516 $USD and bridged stolen funds to BSC.

Details of the Exploit

SpaceX is an imitation ERC20 token, unrelated to any legitimate projects sharing its name and symbol. The deployer siphoned off the liquidity in UniSwap by selling SpaceX tokens for 13.16 $ETH across two transactions. The drained funds were subsequently bridged over to the Binance Smart Chain through Multichain Bridge.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xeC2D2aE3…2D0aA5

Liquidity Draining Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x39c83e47…2c2680

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xdea2ea6a…753fe5

Bridging Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x1d46c086…881014

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SpaceX Copycat

Date of Incident June 13, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token SpaceX

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 SpaceX Copycat'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 SpaceX Copycat, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (June 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/1669206620591538176?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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