How much was lost in the SSPF hack?

The SSPF hack resulted in $58K in losses on September 24, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the SSPF exploit?

The SSPF 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.

SSPF Hack

TOTAL LOST $58K

Low Sep 24, 2022 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1688 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

SSPF token was rug pulled and a total amount of 208 $BNB was drained from the liquidity pool using two EOA addresses.

Details of the Exploit

SSPF is the BEP20 token, and can't be confused with other ~10 projects with the same token symbol including SevenSpaceFour. Two addresses started selling huge amounts of $SSPF and the token price dropped by more than 90%. After almost all assets are drained from the liquidity pool, addresses sent 191 $BNB to another EOA address.

The remaining 17 $BNB is on the previous address at the moment of writing.

Block Data Reference

Malicious actors addresses:

https://bscscan.com/address/0x4c640849…b61083

https://bscscan.com/address/0xa226def6…82a896

https://bscscan.com/address/0x9469d3f0…29e910

Some sell TXs:

https://explorer.bitquery.io/bsc/txs/calls?caller=0xa226def6…82a896&contract=0x10ed43c7…56024e

https://explorer.bitquery.io/bsc/txs/calls?caller=0x4c640849…b61083&contract=0x10ed43c7…56024e

Transfer of 191 $BNB:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x300e650e…dea626

Liquidity pool:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xae12412b…5d049d

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SSPF

Date of Incident September 24, 2022

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token SSPF

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 SSPF'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 SSPF, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 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.

Free Trial

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/CertiKAlert/status/1573438798838497280

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2022

Learn to Prevent the Next SSPF

The SSPF hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.

Start Free Trial Browse Attack Library