Loss Exceeding $26 Million: Analysis of Truebit Protocol Security Incident and Tracking of Stolen Funds Flow

marsbitPublicado em 2026-01-09Última atualização em 2026-01-09

Resumo

On January 9, the Truebit Protocol suffered an attack resulting in a loss of 8,535.36 ETH (approximately $26.4 million) due to an exploit in a five-year-old unaudited and unopen-sourced contract. The attack involved a suspected arithmetic logic flaw, possibly due to integer truncation, in an unverified function (0xa0296215). The attacker repeatedly called this function with a minimal msg.value to mint a large number of TRU tokens, which were then burned to withdraw ETH from the contract’s reserves. According to Beosin’s analysis, the stolen funds—totaling 8,535.36 ETH—were primarily transferred to two addresses: 0xd12f6e0fa7fbf4e3a1c7996e3f0dd26ab9031a60 (holding 4,267.09 ETH) and 0x273589ca3713e7becf42069f9fb3f0c164ce850a (holding 4,001 ETH). The attacker’s address (0x6c8ec8f14be7c01672d31cfa5f2cefeab2562b50) still retains 267.71 ETH. All related addresses have been flagged as high-risk by Beosin KYT. The incident underscores the importance of security audits, contract upgrades, and incorporating emergency pause mechanisms and modern Solidity safety features to mitigate risks in legacy smart contracts.

Author: Beosin

In the early hours of January 9, an unopen-sourced contract deployed by Truebit Protocol 5 years ago was attacked, resulting in a loss of 8,535.36 ETH (worth approximately $26.4 million). The Beosin security team conducted an analysis of the vulnerability and fund tracking for this security incident and shares the results as follows:

Attack Technique Analysis

For this incident, we take the most significant attack transaction as the analysis subject, with the transaction hash: 0xcd4755645595094a8ab984d0db7e3b4aabde72a5c87c4f176a030629c47fb014

1. The attacker calls getPurchasePrice() to obtain the price

2. Subsequently calls the flawed function 0xa0296215(), setting the msg.value extremely low

Since the contract is not open-source, it is inferred from the decompiled code that this function has an arithmetic logic vulnerability, such as integer truncation issues, allowing the attacker to successfully mint a large number of TRU tokens.

3. The attacker "sells back" the minted tokens to the contract through the burn function, extracting a large amount of ETH from the contract reserves.

This process is repeated 4 more times, with the msg.value increasing each time, until almost all ETH in the contract is extracted.

Stolen Funds Tracking

Based on on-chain transaction data, Beosin conducted a detailed fund tracking through its blockchain on-chain investigation and tracking platform, BeosinTrace, and shares the results as follows:

Currently, the stolen 8,535.36 ETH, after transfers, are mostly held in 0xd12f6e0fa7fbf4e3a1c7996e3f0dd26ab9031a60 and 0x273589ca3713e7becf42069f9fb3f0c164ce850a.

Among them, address 0xd12f holds 4,267.09 ETH, and address 0x2735 holds 4,001 ETH. The address from which the attacker initiated the attack (0x6c8ec8f14be7c01672d31cfa5f2cefeab2562b50) still holds 267.71 ETH. There have been no further fund transfers from these three addresses yet.

Stolen Funds Flow Analysis Diagram by Beosin Trace

The above addresses have been marked as high-risk addresses by Beosin KYT. Taking the attacker's address as an example:

Beosin KYT

Conclusion

This stolen fund incident involves an unopen-sourced smart contract from 5 years ago. For such contracts, the project team should upgrade the contract, introduce emergency pause functions, parameter limitations, and new Solidity security features. Furthermore, security audits remain an essential step for contracts. Through security audits, Web3 enterprises can comprehensively detect smart contract code, identify and fix potential vulnerabilities, and enhance contract security.

*Beosin will provide a complete analysis report of all fund flows and address risks for this incident. Welcome to request it via the official email [email protected].

Perguntas relacionadas

QWhat was the total amount of ETH stolen in the Truebit Protocol security incident?

A8,535.36 ETH, valued at approximately $26.4 million.

QWhich function did the attacker call to exploit the vulnerability in the unopened contract?

AThe attacker called the function 0xa0296215() with a very small msg.value to exploit an arithmetic logic vulnerability, likely due to integer truncation issues.

QHow did the attacker convert the fraudulently minted TRU tokens into ETH?

AThe attacker used the burn function to 'sell back' the minted TRU tokens to the contract, extracting a large amount of ETH from the contract reserves.

QWhat are the two main addresses where the stolen ETH is currently held?

AThe majority of the stolen ETH is held in addresses 0xd12f6e0fa7fbf4e3a1c7996e3f0dd26ab9031a60 (4,267.09 ETH) and 0x273589ca3713e7becf42069f9fb3f0c164ce850a (4,001 ETH).

QWhat security measures does Beosin recommend to prevent such incidents?

ABeosin recommends upgrading the contract to include emergency pause functions, parameter limits, and new Solidity security features, as well as conducting thorough security audits to detect and fix potential vulnerabilities.

Leituras Relacionadas

Bernstein Reveals Details of Core Scientific's $14 Billion Deal with AMD

Analysts from Bernstein revealed details of a deal between Core Scientific and AMD with a potential total value of over $14 billion. According to the report, initial contracts for 530 MW of capacity could generate this revenue over 15 years, with AMD acting as a credit guarantor for part of the bitcoin miner's infrastructure. The partnership, announced on July 28, has the potential to allocate up to 2.5 GW of data center capacity for AI. Bernstein broke down the 530 MW into 377 MW of direct triple-net lease for AMD and 152 MW for an unnamed cloud provider backed by AMD's credit. This structure is seen as lowering financing costs and counterparty risk. AMD also received warrants to buy 30 million Core Scientific shares at $23.47 each, which vest upon reaching the 2.5 GW target. Average annual revenue from the deal is estimated at around $0.9 billion, or about $1.8 million per megawatt, which is 5-25% below recent AI hosting deals by other miners. However, the 377 MW triple-net lease for AMD carries a margin close to 100%. Core Scientific expects capital expenditures for the deal to be $11-12 million per MW, totaling about $6 billion. Bernstein views this partnership as a new phase in the transformation of former bitcoin miners into AI infrastructure operators, with AI chipmakers like AMD now acting as direct anchor tenants. Recent similar deals include Hut 8 allocating 704 MW to a tenant believed to be Nvidia, and AMD reserving 200 MW with Riot Platforms. Core Scientific also paid Block $41.9 million to terminate a mining chip supply contract as part of its accelerated diversification into AI.

cryptonews.ruHá 24m

Bernstein Reveals Details of Core Scientific's $14 Billion Deal with AMD

cryptonews.ruHá 24m

Trading

Spot
活动图片