How much was lost in the Symbiosis hack?

The Symbiosis hack resulted in $24K in losses on August 29, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Symbiosis exploit?

The Symbiosis 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.

Symbiosis Hack

TOTAL LOST $24K

Low Aug 29, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1868 By amount stolen

Auditors 1 Prior security audit

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Fake Symbiosis token exit scammed, with deployer removing liquidity worth 23,725 USD from UniSwap pool.

Details of the Exploit

Symbiosis, a copycat ERC20 token trading on UniSwap, experienced a rugpull on Aug 29, 2023. The token can't be confused with the original project. The deployer removed liquidity from the LP pool and transferred the stolen funds to another EOA address.

The funds were distributed between multiple addresses, contributing to a total loss of 23,725 USD.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x6be5a66a…80791f

Scammer Addresses:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x353561B3…eE4420

https://etherscan.io/address/0xd77e38e7…06c1de

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xfbf20d43…3c0229

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Symbiosis

Date of Incident August 29, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Cross Chain Bridge

Affected Token Symbiosis

Official Website symbiosis.finance

Protocol Twitter/X @symbiosis_fi

Team Anonymous

Source Code Verified On-Chain

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 Symbiosis'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 $24K. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Symbiosis, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (August 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/CertiKAlert/status/1696658676902228146?s=20

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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