How much was lost in the Stobox Exchange hack?

The Stobox Exchange hack resulted in $166K in losses on January 07, 2022.

What attack technique was used in the Stobox Exchange exploit?

The Stobox Exchange exploit utilized Access Control. 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.

Stobox Exchange Hack

TOTAL LOST $166K

Low Jan 07, 2022 Access Control

Affected Chain 2022 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1338 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

The contract deployer's address of Stobox Token was hacked or compromised. After receiving control over the address ownership, the hacker removed liquidity from the Uniswap pair at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xbc2aeebf…1df352

In addition, the amount of Stobox token which was holding on the deployer's address was transferred to the external address:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe2e8a45e…df5414

The token recipient then sold tokens on the Uniswap:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x94f10864…30342a#tokentxns

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Stobox Exchange

Date of Incident January 07, 2022

Attack Technique Access Control

Classification CeFi

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs

Affected Token STBU

Official Website www.stobox.exchange/

Protocol Twitter/X @StoboxCompany

Team Public / Doxxed

Source Code Unverified

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 Operational-security tradecraft (phishing, malware, leaked seed phrases, or insider access) to obtain treasury signing authority

Capital Required Minimal capital - only enough to cover gas while draining the compromised accounts

On-Chain Access Valid signing authority over the compromised wallets / multisig signers, allowing direct transfer of funds or stake authorization

Target Reconnaissance Identification of Stobox Exchange's high-value treasury accounts and the authority / multisig structure controlling them

Execution Speed Speed to drain the compromised accounts before the team detects the breach and revokes signing authority or freezes the assets

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 Access Control audit checklist and test coverage

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $166K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Stobox Exchange, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (January 2022).

Verify all logic paths related to Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Related Attack Classes

The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:

See all Access Control Attacks examples →

Access Control Attacks

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ioQ1mXdnsBqz0qnamg7h8nsaEgRa…

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Access Control
Root Cause CeFi
Year 2022

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