SushiSwap Hack

TOTAL LOST $3.0M
Medium Other

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain 2021 Incident surface
Recovered $3.0M 100.0% returned
All-Time Rank #567 By amount stolen
Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

The exploiter:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x3ddd8b6d…c45395

Sushiswap's launchpad MISO was attacked from the front end side. The anonymous contractor of the Sushiswap GitHub uploaded malicious code, which replaced the auction's wallet with the exploiter's wallet. Commit author was under the AristoK3 nickname. The exploiter's wallet was funded from exchanges like Binance, FTX.

The transaction where the funds were withdrawn:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x78d63557…1cda44

The funds were returned back to the SushiSwap Operation Multisig wallet at:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4bfd68aa…748521

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x904e5bcb…08cbdb

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x421e06f9…f6fa61

Incident Report

Protocol / Project SushiSwap
Date of Incident
Attack Technique Other
Classification Exchange (DEX),Borrowing and Lending
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs
Affected Token SUSHI
Official Website app.sushi.com/miso
Protocol Twitter/X @SushiSwap
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories
Collectibles & NFTs Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Token DeFi Gaming DAO Ethereum Ecosystem Yield Farming AMM
Protocol Links
GitHub Discord Reddit

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 other 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 SushiSwap's contract logic - root cause: exchange (dex),borrowing and lending
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? Likely — with a thorough Other audit checklist and test coverage
Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $3.0M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to SushiSwap, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (September 2021).

  • Verify all logic paths related to Other 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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Funds Recovery

100.0%

Recovered

$3.0M

Net Loss

0

Security Audit History

Sources & References

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