Common Attack Vectors

Protect Your DAO from Malicious Governance Takeover Attacks

Governance is the foundation of a DAO’s, but it is also a major attack vector. Malicious actors can acquire majority voting power and pass proposals that drain the treasury or change protocol rules in their favor. Guardrail’s real-time monitoring enables teams to identify and respond to governance exploits before they can cause irreversible damage.

Book Demo

Trusted by leading Web3 projects

Automated Mitigation & Response

Secure your DAO’s governance process

Protect both your community and your treasury

What is a governance takeover attack?

An attacker acquires enough governance tokens via flash loan or market purchase to control protocol votes and pass malicious proposals: draining treasury funds, manipulating fees for profit, or changing governance rules to maintain permanent control.

How a Governance Exploit Unfolds

Acquire Voting Power

The attacker acquires a massive amount of the governance token, either through a flash loan or by buying from the market.

Submit Malicious Proposal

With voting power secured, they propose harmful changes to the protocol.

Vote & Execute

The attacker approves the proposal with their majority share and implements the malicious changes before resistance can organize.

Governance attacks strike at the core of Web3. If a single actor can manipulate decisions, the DAO ceases to function as a decentralized body. This undermines community trust and opens the door to treasury theft and hostile rule changes.

Why traditional smart contract audits don’t catch governance exploits

Audits analyze isolated code. Flash loans exploit

live, multi-protocol interactions.

Governance exploits target token economics and voting dynamics post-launch, not code bugs. Flash loan voting and whale manipulation exploit live market conditions audits can't predict.

Guardrail’s real-time monitoring protects your DAO against Governance Takeover Attacks

Monitor & Send Alerts:

Sudden Increases in Voting Power: Alerts when a large volume of tokens is acquired in a short timeframe.
Suspicious Proposals: Detection of proposals with potentially malicious actions, such as transferring funds to unknown addresses.
Rapid Voting Activity: Notification if an unusual surge of “yes” votes occurs on a controversial proposal.

Automated Mitigation & Response

Trigger an Emergency Pause: The system can be set to automatically pause the proposal and execution if certain conditions are met, giving the community a chance to react and vote against the malicious proposal.
Facilitate Communication: Notify DAO teams instantly through channels like Discord or Telegram to coordinate a rapid response..

Guardrail helps secure your DAO’s governance process, protecting both your community and your treasury.

Guards provide complete security coverage of every onchain

Pre-built Guards

Instantly set up ‘Guards’ for common attack vectors from our extensive blueprint library of 50+ ‘Guards’

Custom Guards

Custom monitoring for your unique protocol risks

Find out more

Frequently Asked Questions

Need more information?

Read our Docs

How do DAOs typically structure governance to prevent attacks?

Most DAOs use token-weighted voting systems. Without safeguards, these can be exploited if a single actor acquires enough tokens. Additional security layers, such as Guardrai,l help monitor and defend against hostile takeovers.

What role do flash loans play in governance attacks?

Flash loans allow attackers to temporarily acquire massive voting power. They can use this to pass malicious proposals and then return the loan within the same transaction.

How can communities detect suspicious DAO proposals early?

Communities can track voting trends, proposal language, and sudden token concentration. Guardrail automates this monitoring, flagging anomalies before execution.

Can governance attacks be reversed after execution?

Once executed, malicious proposals are often irreversible without a hard fork or extraordinary measures. Prevention through early detection is the most effective defense.

What are the best practices for DAO security beyond monitoring?

Best practices include implementing quorum requirements, using time delays for proposal execution, and combining strong governance frameworks with real-time monitoring solutions like Guardrail.

Get Guardrail to secure your assets onchain today

Start Monitoring

Subscribe to newsletter

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Launch App

Design by Klad