Flash Loan Governance Attacks
Flash Loan Governance Attacks occur when an attacker uses the massive, temporary capital available through flash loans to manipulate a governance vote. Because flash loans allow for borrowing large sums without collateral, provided the loan is repaid within a single transaction, an attacker can purchase enough governance tokens to sway a vote in their favor.
They then pass a malicious proposal that benefits them, such as transferring treasury funds to their own wallet, before repaying the loan. This exploits the speed and accessibility of decentralized finance, turning the protocol's own democratic processes against it.
Mitigating these attacks often requires implementing snapshot-based voting or delay mechanisms that prevent immediate execution of passed proposals. It highlights the tension between accessibility and security in decentralized governance.