How much was lost in the Tommy VICE CITY hack?

The Tommy VICE CITY hack resulted in $308K in losses on August 04, 2023.

What attack technique was used in the Tommy VICE CITY exploit?

The Tommy VICE CITY 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.

Tommy VICE CITY Hack

TOTAL LOST $308K

Low Aug 04, 2023 Rugpull

Affected Chain 2023 Incident surface

Recovered - No recovery reported

All-Time Rank #1135 By amount stolen

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull Target category

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

Tommy VICE CITY token was rugpulled by the deployer, removing liquidity worth 308,248 $USD from UniSwap pool.

Details of the Exploit

Tommy VICE CITY (TOM) is an ERC20 token trading on UniSwap. On August 4, the deployer executed a rugpull by removing liquidity worth 168.32 $ETH from the LP pool. The stolen funds were subsequently transferred to another EOA and then distributed between multiple addresses using CoinTool.

The total loss in this exit scam amounts to 308,248 $USD.

Block Data Reference

Deployer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x9E6Ba3Bc…7e4e7c

Scammer Address:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x5144c647…0b9fa4

Liquidity Removal Transaction:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5c7aa807…0f83e6

Funds Distribution Transactions:

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x81e41d88…014f96

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x1e587397…3ae12e

https://etherscan.io/tx/0xd56e30c7…74a3bf

Incident Report

Protocol / Project Tommy VICE CITY

Date of Incident August 04, 2023

Attack Technique Rugpull

Classification Token

Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Exit Scam/Rugpull

Affected Token TOM

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 Tommy VICE CITY'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

If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Tommy VICE CITY, 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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Sources & References

01
Source 1 https://twitter.com/dedotfisecurity/status/1688663677820428289?s=46

Threat Assessment

Severity Level

LOW

Attack Vector Rugpull
Root Cause Token
Year 2023

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