Mar 2023 - Safemoon Vulnerable Deployer Exploited - $8.9m (Global)
"A human-focused technology and innovation business expanding blockchain technologies for a brighter tomorrow.
Deeply connected to and driven by our award winning community (The SafeMoon Army), we are innovating for good. Building blockchain, commerce, metaverse and NFT products to derive new kinds of value from crypto technology and to apply it to increasingly better use."
"We are now addressing the second part of our mission – the expansion and channeling of our technology to propel new innovations for good, and a Venture Philanthropy model to advance those innovations to every part of the world."
"Initially labelled as a pump and dump scheme, Safemoon shillfluencers were later slapped with a class action suit, before Coffeezilla published a series of detailed investigations into what went on behind the scenes.
The favourite of tiktok investors during the peak of Spring 2021’s BSC hype, Safemoon claimed it was un-ruggable due to locked liquidity, which was topped-up with every transfer of tokens. However, the transfer fees were also criticised as ponzinomics as bagholders were disincentivised to sell."
"Just over six hours before the attack, the Safemoon: Deployer address upgraded the token contract to a new implementation. In doing so, the team introduced a vulnerability leading to an astonishingly simple exploit."
"The new code left the burn() function publicly callable, allowing anyone to burn SFM tokens from any address.
This allowed the attacker to burn large quantities of SFM held inside the SFM:BNB liquidity pool, vastly inflating the price of SFM tokens in the pool.
Then, by selling (previously acquired) SFM tokens into the skewed pool, the attacker was able to drain it of BNB liquidity, for a profit of 28k BNB, or $8.9M."
"Safemoon lost $8.9M worth of ‘locked LP’ thanks to a bug introduced in the project’s latest upgrade."
"The attack, which drained the SFM/BNB pool, was announced by the project and its CEO, John Karony, with replies disabled on both tweets.
A few hours after the attack, the hacker sent a message to the Safemoon: Deployer address, claiming to be MEV bot operator willing to return the funds:
Hey relax, we are accidently frontrun an attack against you, we would like to return the fund, setup secure communication channel , lets talk
However, past on-chain activity suggests they are no white knight after all…
Even if the team has dodged a bullet this time…
…can they be trusted after such a basic error?"
"The hacker claims to have frontrunned attack and has reached out to Safemoon to negotiate the return of funds, the majority of which have since been transferred to 0x237D where they remain at the time of writing."
"Whether a botched rug attempt, or sheer incompetence, this episode is not a good look for a project that was never very highly regarded."
Further Analysis
SafeMoon is a human-focused technology and innovation business expanding blockchain technologies to build blockchain, commerce, metaverse, and NFT products for good. SafeMoon has faced criticism in the past, initially labeled as a pump and dump scheme, and later shillfluencers were slapped with a class action suit. The project claims to be un-ruggable due to locked liquidity, but the transfer fees were criticized as ponzinomics. SafeMoon recently suffered an attack that drained the SFM/BNB pool, causing the project to lose $8.9M worth of 'locked LP.' The hacker claims to have front-run the attack and has reached out to SafeMoon to negotiate the return of funds. However, the past on-chain activity suggests they may not be trustworthy.
How Could This Have Been Prevented?
Greater review and insight needs to happen prior to smart contract upgrades.
More Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks/Scams/Frauds
EmpireX Capital Alleged Ponzi Scheme > > < < Jairo Martinez Cryptocurrency Scam Victim
Sources/Further Reading
Rekt - Safemoon - REKT (Dec 31)
@RektHQ Twitter (Dec 31)
Binance Transaction Hash (Txhash) Details | BscScan
(Dec 31)
Home | SafeMoon (Dec 31)
https://pixabay.com/vectors/safemoon-safe-moon-safemoon-logo-6273158/ (Dec 31)
I've already lost $8000 : SafeMoon (Dec 31)
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