Exchange aggregator 1inch released a new tool called “Rabbithole” on Nov. 25, which the company says will protect traders against malicious “sandwich attacks.” The team announced the launch of the tool in a press release that has been made available to Cointelegraph.
Rabbithole works by allowing users to submit transactions directly to Ethereum nodes, bypassing the mempool. In order to use it, users need to change the remote procedure call (RPC (NYSE:RES)) endpoint in their crypto wallet. After that, each swap initiated via 1inch will be analyzed by the private tx routing algorithm developed by the 1inch team and then sent to validators directly if there is a possibility of a sandwich attack.
- The attacker scans the blockchain’s mempool until it finds a high-value transaction
- A transaction is submitted to front-run the victim’s purchase, and higher gas is paid to make sure that the attacker’s transaction gets processed before the victim’s. This early transaction pumps the price of the coin that is about to be purchased, causing the victim to pay more
- After the victim’s transaction is processed, the attacker submits a second transaction that sells their coins, pocketing the difference in price