Clear DefinitionsOracle Manipulation Attack
1 min read
Pronunciation
[awr-uh-kl muh-nip-yuh-lay-shun uh-tak]
Analogy
Like tampering with a thermostat sensor to trick the HVAC system into overheating a building for profit.
Definition
An exploit where an attacker influences oracle-provided data—such as pushing price feeds to extreme values—to trick dependent smart contracts into incorrect behavior and profit fraudulently.
Key Points Intro
Oracle manipulation attacks exploit trust in external data to compromise smart contract logic.
Key Points
Price manipulation: Spam low-liquidity markets to skew feeds.
Sybil attacks: Control majority of oracle nodes.
Delayed updates: Exploit stale data windows.
Flash loans: Temporarily move market price for oracle submission.
Example
An attacker uses a flash loan to depress DEX price, oracle adapter fetches manipulated price, liquidates positions on a lending protocol.
Technical Deep Dive
Attack flow: borrow via flash loan, execute large swap on low-liquidity pair, wait oracle update, trigger `liquidate()` on lending contract, repay flash loan, pocket difference.
Security Warning
Always use TWAP, median of multiple sources, and circuit breakers to mitigate.
Caveat
No mitigation is perfect; combine multiple defenses.
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