Griefing Attack
An attack where the attacker deliberately harms other participants or disrupts a system, even at a net cost to themselves, rather than seeking direct financial profit.
A griefing attack is an attack where the attacker's primary goal is deliberately harming other participants or disrupting a system's normal operation, rather than seeking direct financial profit — a griefing attacker may willingly accept a net financial loss themselves, as long as the attack still succeeds in causing disruption or harm to others.
This distinguishes a griefing attack from most other documented attack types (such as a flash loan attack or an oracle manipulation), which are generally motivated by the attacker's own direct financial gain — griefing is motivated by disruption itself, making it harder to deter through purely financial security assumptions.
Examples
- A griefing attacker may deliberately accept a net financial loss themselves, as long as the attack still disrupts the system or harms other participants.
- Griefing attacks are harder to deter through purely financial security assumptions, since the attacker isn't necessarily seeking direct profit the way most other attacks are.