How much was lost in the Symbiogenesis hack?

The Symbiogenesis hack resulted in $54K in losses on November 28, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Symbiogenesis exploit?

The Symbiogenesis 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.

Symbiogenesis Hack

TOTAL LOST $54K

Low Nov 28, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1703 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

SYSIS token experienced a rugpull exit scam with 53,639 USD worth of liquidity removed from the UniSwap pool on Nov 28, 2023.

Details of the Exploit

SYSIS is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. The scammer removed 26.67 ETH, equivalent to 53,639 USD, from the liquidity pool. The stolen funds were then transferred to another EOA address using a smart contract.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xf5e228B8…EfC483

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x95a6FcB5…79C180

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x62d292c0…0ec58c

Malicious Contract:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x8B544F47…eF8cca

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Symbiogenesis

Date of Incident November 28, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Cross Chain Bridge

Affected Token SYSIS

Official Website symbiosis.finance

Protocol Twitter/X @symbiosis_fi

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

Market Context at Time of Hack

Token Categories

Privacy Ethereum Ecosystem Arbitrum Ecosystem BNB Chain Ecosystem zkSync Era Ecosystem DWF Labs Portfolio Linea Ecosystem Scroll Ecosystem

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 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 Symbiogenesis'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

Audited by Audit Report 1 — still lost $54K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Symbiogenesis, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (November 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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Security Audit History

Audit Report 1 Report

Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1729412437420777617?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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