How much was lost in the Star Swap hack?

The Star Swap hack resulted in $77K in losses on November 06, 2020.

What attack technique was used in the Star Swap exploit?

The Star Swap 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.

Star Swap Hack

TOTAL LOST $77K

Low Nov 06, 2020 Rugpull ethereum

Affected Chain ethereum Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1609 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Dexs Target category

Incident Overview

The contract deployer added initial liquidity at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x062cb2e5…ebec1c

The contract deployer used hidden minting functionality under the starCheck() function to generate new tokens onto his wallet:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x786c8637…932dbc

The minted tokens were sold by the contract deployer at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe621d4aa…078c47

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Star Swap

Date of Incident November 06, 2020

Affected Chain(s) ethereum

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Exchange (DEX)

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token STRSW

Official Website starswap.net

Protocol Twitter/X @StarSwap

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Ethereum 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 ethereum smart contracts and deploy a custom exploit contract

Protocol Analysis Identification of the exploitable vulnerability in Star Swap's contract logic - root cause: exchange (dex)

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 Star Swap, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 2020).

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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Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Exchange (DEX)
Year 2020

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