token-approval-safety

Unlimited ERC-20 token approvals expose wallets to theft by allowing malicious or compromised spenders to drain funds via transferFrom(). Revoking or limiting these allowances eliminates the vulnerability.

To check and revoke unlimited ERC-20 token allowances, audit your wallet's active approvals using on-chain checks or reputable approval checker tools, identify high-risk spenders, and execute a revoke transaction to eliminate exposure.

An EIP-2612 permit signature phishing attack tricks users into signing an off-chain message that grants token approval without a standard transaction, allowing the attacker to use transferFrom() to drain the wallet.

Use exact token approvals for DeFi deposits and swaps to limit spender access, reserving unlimited allowances only for trusted, audited protocols to reduce attack surface from potential protocol compromises.

The best way to secure a wallet after a DeFi protocol compromise is immediate incident response: audit all active token approvals, identify spenders linked to the compromised protocol, and revoke their allowances immediately.