If a DeFi exploit may involve a token approval, check the affected network and revoke the specific spender’s permission from the wallet that granted it. Revocation is an on-chain transaction and costs a network fee. If your seed phrase or private key is compromised, approvals are only part of the problem: move remaining assets to a newly secured wallet using a careful recovery plan.
First distinguish a risky approval from a compromised wallet key. The right response depends on which one is involved.
First determine what may be compromised
A token approval gives a spender contract permission to transfer a particular token up to an allowance. It can remain active after you stop using a dapp. If the spender is malicious, compromised, or otherwise unsafe, an attacker may be able to use that permission. Revoke.cash explains how to review permissions by chain and spender: what token approvals are.
A suspicious approval is different from a stolen wallet secret. An approval checker can help identify permissions, but it cannot establish that your device, seed phrase, or private key is safe. If you suspect key compromise, treat the wallet as exposed and prioritize securing your remaining assets.
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How to revoke a suspicious token approval
- Open a trusted checker for the right network. Start from an official help page or a known block-explorer address rather than a search advertisement or unsolicited message. Uniswap’s support instructions point users to an approval checker and link to Etherscan Token Approvals and Revoke.cash: Uniswap’s approval-revocation guide.
- Connect the wallet that granted the approval. Select the chain where the permission exists. Token approvals are chain-specific, so a review on one network does not cover the others.
- Inspect the token, spender, and allowance. Compare the spender address with the protocol or transaction involved in the incident. Check the allowance and whether you still need that permission. If the approval may have been recent, sorting newest first or filtering the list can help find it; Revoke.cash describes those list controls in its dashboard guide.
- Submit a revoke transaction for the relevant permission. Confirm the network and transaction details in your wallet before signing. For ERC-20 tokens, revocation generally sets the allowance to zero. Because the token’s allowance-setting function is used, the wallet may show a generic approval-style prompt; inspect the transaction details instead of relying only on that label. Revoke.cash describes revoking or reducing an allowance in its revocation instructions.
- Verify the result and review other networks. Check the resulting allowance or approval state using a reliable checker or explorer. Review each network where you used the protocol, and remember that some non-standard approval types may not appear in a standard approval checker.
What revoking does—and does not do
- It limits future use of that permission. A revoke transaction cannot reverse transfers that have already occurred.
- It does not disconnect the wallet from a site. A dapp connection and an on-chain token approval are separate. Disconnecting a site does not revoke an allowance; Uniswap explains the distinction in its support guide.
- It costs a network transaction fee. The transaction must be submitted on the chain where the approval exists.
- It may affect later use of the dapp. A future swap or deposit may require a new approval. Revoking an allowance does not remove tokens you already deposited or staked; adding more may require granting permission again.
When reviewing multiple permissions, prioritize spenders implicated in the incident, large or unlimited allowances you no longer need, and permissions on affected networks. Weigh that risk against transaction fees and the possibility that you will need to approve again. Revoke.cash describes the choice between removing an allowance and reducing it in its approval guide.
If your seed phrase or private key may be exposed
Revoking approvals does not make a wallet safe when someone else may control its secret key: that person can potentially sign transactions directly. Create a new wallet with a newly generated secret and move remaining assets carefully. A hardware wallet may improve how the new wallet’s keys are stored, but it cannot undo exposure of the old seed phrase or revoke old contract permissions. Revoke.cash gives a general explanation of hardware wallets.
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If incoming native tokens are swept away soon after they arrive, that can indicate the wallet key is compromised. Do not send fresh gas into that address without a considered recovery plan; a sweeper may take it too. Seek help through a trusted channel if you need a recovery strategy, and never share your seed phrase or private key with someone offering to recover funds.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Limits of approval checkers
A blank approval list is not proof that every possible permission is absent. Revoke.cash warns that some non-standard approvals may not appear in a standard checker. Its own incident compilation shows more than $494 million stolen since 2020 in incidents it classifies as approval exploits; that is Revoke’s publisher-owned aggregate, accessed in 2026, not a comprehensive independently verified industry total: Revoke’s incident compilation.
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