Briefing
The emergence of the new Eleven Drainer group signals an escalation in the organized Phishing-as-a-Service (DaaS) threat model, placing millions of Web3 users at immediate risk. This organized crime syndicate uses sophisticated social engineering to deceive victims into signing malicious token approval transactions, which grant the attacker unlimited spending rights over their assets. This attack vector bypasses protocol-level smart contract audits entirely, as the vulnerability lies in the user’s operational security, contributing to the approximately $494 million lost to drainers in 2024.
Context
The prevailing security posture is characterized by a high-volume, low-effort attack surface rooted in user interaction. The DaaS economy, which sells sophisticated drainer kits for a percentage of stolen funds, has lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals. This environment has normalized the risk of token approval phishing, where users habitually sign transaction prompts without fully inspecting the embedded contract permissions, making them the weakest link in the security chain.
Analysis
The attack chain begins with a social engineering lure, such as a fraudulent NFT mint or a fake token airdrop, directing the victim to a malicious dApp front-end. The user’s wallet is then prompted to sign a transaction, typically an increaseAllowance or setApprovalForAll function, which is a legitimate on-chain function. This signature grants the attacker a limitless spending allowance on the user’s tokens or NFTs without any further interaction required from the victim. The Eleven Drainer then uses this pre-signed approval to silently sweep the victim’s assets from their wallet in a subsequent transaction, effectively draining the account.
Parameters
- Annualized Drainer Loss → $494 Million; Total cryptocurrency stolen by wallet drainers in 2024.
- Victim Count → 63,210; Victims of a related drainer (MS Drainer) in 2023, illustrating the scale of the DaaS model.
- Vulnerability Type → Malicious Token Approval; The specific on-chain function exploited to grant unlimited spending rights.
Outlook
Users must immediately revoke all unnecessary token approvals via dedicated third-party tools and adopt a zero-trust policy for all unsolicited dApp interactions. The industry must prioritize wallet-side security enhancements that provide clear, human-readable risk summaries for transaction signing, moving beyond opaque hexadecimal data. This DaaS proliferation mandates a shift in security focus from protocol code to user education and wallet interface transparency to mitigate the systemic threat of social engineering.
Verdict
The DaaS economy, exemplified by the Eleven Drainer, confirms that user-side social engineering and malicious token approvals are the single greatest systemic risk to retail digital asset security.
