Price Feed Attack

Definition ∞ A Price Feed Attack is a malicious exploit targeting the external data sources, or oracles, that provide real-world price information to smart contracts on a blockchain. Attackers manipulate these price feeds to cause a decentralized finance protocol to misprice assets, leading to unfair liquidations, arbitrage opportunities, or the draining of funds. This type of attack undermines the reliability of protocols dependent on accurate external market data. It exploits the trust placed in data providers.
Context ∞ Price feed attacks represent a significant and ongoing security threat to decentralized finance protocols, with numerous incidents reported in crypto news. The discussion centers on strengthening oracle security, including implementing decentralized oracle networks, using multiple data sources, and incorporating time-weighted average prices. A critical future development involves developing more robust and resilient oracle solutions that are resistant to manipulation and censorship.

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→Price Feed Attack

→Flash Loan Vector

→Token Valuation

Lending Protocol Moonwell Exploited via Chainlink Oracle Mispricing on Base Network

Oracle data integrity failure on Base network allowed a $1.1 million over-borrowing exploit, bypassing collateral checks.

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→Smart Contract Vulnerability

→Economic Exploit

→On-Chain Forensics

DeFi Protocol Drained $50 Million Exploiting Oracle Manipulation and Logic Flaw

Inadequate input validation and reliance on a single oracle feed created a critical economic attack vector, allowing a $50M asset drain.

The image displays a detailed rendering of a modular blockchain design, highlighting intricate protocol integration. Smooth white conduits represent high-throughput data pipelines, connecting into a textured, deep blue core signifying a distributed ledger. Smaller metallic tubes within the white structure illustrate granular transaction streams and inter-node communication. A larger white tube above suggests an oracle network feed or cross-chain communication channel. This visual metaphor encapsulates the complex network topology essential for Web3 infrastructure, emphasizing scalability, interoperability, and efficient on-chain data processing within a decentralized autonomous organization framework.

→Flash Loan Attack

→Collateral Valuation

→Protocol Governance

DeFi Lending Protocol Drained by Oracle Price Manipulation and Logic Flaw

A critical failure in oracle input validation and access control logic allowed a multi-stage exploit to drain $50M via collateral manipulation.

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→Unaudited Code Risk

→Liquidity Pool Drain

→Custom Contract Risk

Typus Finance Drained $3.4 Million Exploiting Custom Oracle Access Flaw

Unaudited custom oracle code with a missing authorization check enabled a $3.4M price manipulation attack on the TLP contract.

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→Systemic Risk

→Smart Contract Logic

→Synthetic Asset Risk

Decentralized Exchange Hyperliquid Exploited via Manipulated Smart Contract Pricing Mechanism

The DEX's reliance on a single-source pricing mechanism for illiquid assets allowed a coordinated oracle manipulation attack to drain collateral.

A faceted blue crystalline structure, resembling an immutable ledger shard, dominates the frame, encasing a glowing full moon. This celestial body functions as a decentralized oracle, providing critical off-chain data feeds to the protocol architecture. Patches of white snow suggest cold storage for digital assets or frozen liquidity. White, bare branches extend, symbolizing potential network forks or layer-2 scaling solutions within the decentralized finance ecosystem. The intricate structure reflects cryptographic primitives securing on-chain governance.

→Token Price Volatility

→Immediate Mitigation

→Oracle Manipulation

Yield Platform Typus Finance Drained by Oracle Price Manipulation Flaw

An oracle manipulation vulnerability in a TLP contract allowed the attacker to distort asset price feeds and drain $3.4 million.