ValueDefi Hack

TOTAL LOST $11.0M
High Access Control Exploit / Other / Math Mistake Exploit / Other bsc ethereum

Summarize with AI

ChatGPT Perplexity Claude Grok
Affected Chain bsc 2 chains affected
Recovered - No recovery reported
All-Time Rank #292 By amount stolen
Auditors 2 Prior security audits

Incident Overview

Quick Summary

An attacker exploited a vulnerability in the pool of vBSWAP/BUSD LP, re-initialized the pool, took control, and drained the original stake token, resulting in a loss of 10,839.16 vBSWAP/BUSD LP.

Details of the Exploit

The attacker re-initialized the pool and set the operator role to himself and _stakeToken to HACKEDMONEY. He then took control of the pool and called the method governanceRecoverUnsupported() to drain the original stake token (vBWAP/BUSD LP). The attacker removed 10,839.16 vBWAP/BUSD LP, then removed liquidity and received 7342.75 vBSWAP and 205,659.22 BUSD.

He sold all 7342.75 vBSWAP for 8790.77 BNB at 1inch. The attacker used both BNB and BUSD to buy renBTC and used renBridge to move the funds back to BTC, which was laundered to a specific address.

Block Data Reference

The attacker's address:

https://bscscan.com/address/0xef63ad57…d28764

The transaction behind the attack:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0xd3382252…769040

The transaction of removing vBWAP/BUSD LP:

https://bscscan.com/tx/0x9ba0454c…6389b6

The laundered BTC address:

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1Cm6WGvXQ9EgvvWX5dRsBxE2NvxFjfbcVF

This is classified as a Access Control Attacks, Arithmetic Overflows Underflows . Compare similar hacks →

Incident Report

Protocol / Project ValueDefi
Date of Incident
Affected Chain(s) bsc ethereum
Attack Technique Access Control Exploit / Other / Math Mistake Exploit / Other
Classification Protocol Logic / Exchange (DEX) / Protocol Logic / Exchange (DEX)
Primary Source View Post-Mortem

Protocol Information

Protocol Type Dexs
Affected Token VALUE
Smart Contract Language Solidity
Official Website valuedefi.io/
Protocol Twitter/X @value_defi
Team Anonymous
Source Code Unverified

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 ValueDefi'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 Exploit / Other / Math Mistake Exploit / Other audit checklist and test coverage
Audited by DeFi Safety, Pessimistic — still lost $11.0M. Prior audits don't guarantee safety, especially after post-audit code changes.

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

  • Verify all logic paths related to Access Control Exploit / Other / Math Mistake Exploit / Other 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

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 Arithmetic Overflows Underflows

Sources & References

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